NEOS SACD

	MATHIAS SPAHLINGER (*1944): Farben der Frühe für Sieben Klaviere/For Seven Pianos Label: NEOS SACD 10710 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!!! Ensemble Surplus: Axel Gremmelspacher, Peter Hoffmann, Sven Thomas Kiebler, Eun Ju Kim, Hansjörg Koch, Irmela Roelcke, Elmar Schrammel, pianos, James Avery, conductor Spahlinger is not exactly known as a fast composer, but even by his standards the eight years it took to write this piece represent an extraordinarily long time. The premiere of the piece commissioned by the SDR in 1997 was delayed five times before it finally took place in November 2005. In the end, Spahlinger did indeed reveal something new between the rubble of tonal organization and the new construction of an architecture of sound and noise, something that had never previously be heard in this form. By doing so, he probably created a caesura not only within his own creative work but in the production of music today as a whole. The present multichannel surround recording from March 20, 2007, with the pianists of the premiere is a pioneering act of musica viva in Munich.
	LADISLAV KUBIK (*1946) Label: NEOS SACD 10711 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!!! Songs of Zhivago for tenor and orchestra (2002-2005) Adrian Thompson, tenor; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Ronald Zollmann Concerto breve for piano and orchestra (1998) Joanna Sobkowska, piano; Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Valek Sinfonietta No. 2 “Jacob’s Well” for orchestra (1999) Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Valek In 1985 Boris Pasternak, the author of the novel Doctor Zhivago, received the Nobel Prize but was compelled by the Soviet regime to turn it down. The Czech-born composer Ladislav Kubík, who lives in the United States, sees the poem that Pasternak placed at the end of his novel as a self-portrait and used it to create his own magnum opus for tenor and orchestra. Concerto breve for piano and orchestra (1998) follows in terms of structure the principles of the classical concerto, albeit in somewhat abbreviated form. Three main sections correspond to the usual form of slow-fast-slow. The piano plays its role as solo instrument effectively but is never overly virtuosic. In the debate over the general intelligibility of New Music, Kubík offers for discussion here a work of great accessibility, directness, and emotionality. Sinfonietta No. 2 is composed of three interconnected movements (attacca). While the introductory Allegro agile and the subsequent Presto furioso depict primarily the confusion and brutality of the world, the final movement, Andante, molto introspectivo, offers a spiritual catharsis. Kubík takes up an episode from the New Testament (Jesus’s conversation with a woman at Jacob’s Well) and depicts the well as the source of living water, as a symbol of healing forces and growing faith in everything pure and essential, which is all that lasts eternally.
	DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE 2006, VOLUME 1 Label: NEOS SACD 10724 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!!! OLE-HENRIK MOE (*1966): Lenger for string quartet and solo violin (2006) SAED HADDAD (*1972): Joie voile for string quartet (2005/2006) WOLFGANG RIHM (*1952): Akt und Tag, Two studies for soprano and string quartet (2006) JULIO ESTRADA (*1943): Quotidianus for voice and string quartet (2006) Ole-Henrik Moe, violin; Claron McFadden, soprano; Julio Estrada, voice Arditti Quartet: Irvine Arditti, violin; Ashot Sarkissjan, violin; Ralf Ehlers, viola; Lucas Fels, violoncello Live recordings: October 19, 21-22, 2006
	KLAUS OSPALD (*1956) Label: NEOS SACD 10712 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Tschappina-Variationen for ensemble (2001); Konzert für Ensemble und Violine (2003/2004) Bettina Boller, violin; Collegium Novum Zürich/Peter Hirsch Klaus Ospald, born in Münster in 1956, studied composition first with Jürgen Ulrich at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and then with Berthold Hummel at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, where he completed his studies with a master class diploma. In 1985 he received a scholarship for the Cité des Arts Paris and was awarded the Förderpreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart in 1987. That same year he began supplementary studies with Helmut Lachenmann. In 1988 the Free State of Bavaria honored his work with the Staatspreis. In 1997 he received the XXIII. Premio Leonardo da Vinci. Such important podiums for contemporary music as the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt, the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Steirischer Herbst in Graz, the Bremer Podium, the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, and the Münchener Biennale have presented premieres of his works. Klaus Ospald lives as a freelance composer in Würzburg.
	DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE 2006, VOLUME 2 Label: NEOS SACD 10725 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
GEORG FRIEDRICH HAAS (*1953): Hyperion for light and orchestra (2006) SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg/Rupert Huber JORG WIDMANN (*1973): Zweites Labyrinth for orchestral groups (2006) SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg/Hans Zender Georg Friedrich Haas, born in Graz in 1953, studied composition with Gösta Neuwirth, piano with Doris Wolf, and music pedagogy. Since 1989, professorship in counterpoint, composition, and analysis at the Musikhochschule Graz; prizes and stipends from the Salzburg Festival, the Österreichisches Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur, as well as from the City of Vienna. Jörg Widmann was born in Munich in 1973. He studied clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik München with Gerd Starke later with Charles Neidich at the Juilliard School in New York. As soloist he has performed with important conductors and orchestras in Germany and abroad. His passion is chamber music, and he performs regularly with partners such as Tabea Zimmermann, Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Kim Kashkashian and Hélène Grimaud.
	DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE 2006, VOLUME 3 Label: NEOS SACD 10726 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!!! MARTIN SMOLKA (*1959): Semplice for old and new instruments in six movements (2006) Ensemble recherché; Freiburger Barockorchester/Lucas Vis WOLFGANG MITTERER (*1958): inwendig losgelöst für Barock orchestra, ensemble and electronics (2006) Wolfgang Mitterer, turntable; Freiburger Barockorchester/Lucas Vis Ensemble recherché; Experimentalstudio für akustische Kunst, Freiburg Reinhold Braig/Joachim Haas, sound directors
	DAN DEDIU (*1967) – PIANO PIECES Label: NEOS SACD 10713 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Idyllen und Gerrillen for four hands, Op. 76 (1998); The Grasshopper for the left hand (and…), Op. 112 (2006); From the cycle Lévantiques, Op. 64 (1997): Bêtes nostalgiques, Le vent du Transylvanie, Rock ‘n’ roll des Bogomiles; Sonata No. 4, Op. 60 (1996); Les barricades mystérieuses – reloaded (2006) Dan Dediu, piano; Valentina Sandu-Dediu, piano Dan Dediu, born in Braila/Romania, in 1967, attended the music school in Bucharest from 1981 to 1985 and then studied until 1989 at the conservatory there with Stefan Niculescu and Dan Constantinescu. He supplemented his studies with Francis Burt, at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, and with a scholarship from the Alfred Toepfer Stiftung in Hamburg and the Alban Berg Stiftung in Vienna. In 1991 he received first prize at the George Enescu International Composition Competition; that same year he became assistant professor for composition and form at the National University of Music in Bucharest. In 1994 he was visiting professor at Queen’s University of Belfast and attended a course in computers for music at IRCAM in Paris. In 1999 and 2001 he was artistic director of the International Week of New Music Festival in Bucharest. Since 1990 Dan Dediu has been a member of the Romanian Association of Composers, since 1992 of the national group of the ISCM. In 1998 he became professor and in 2000 chair of the composition department at the National University of Music in Bucharest.
	JOHN CAGE (1912 – 1992) Label: NEOS SACD 10720 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Seven for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and violoncello (1988) Quartets I – VIII for 24 instruments (1976) Orchester Jakobsplatz München/Daniel Grossmann John Cage's Quartets I-VIII is one of the most unusual and sophisticated orchestral works I know. It was written for the bicentennial of the United States of America. Cage used eight old American chorales, which he then reformed into an entirely new work with the help of the Chinese oracular work I Ching. The basic idea is to have just four instruments of the orchestra playing together at any time. As a result new groups are constantly forming into variously composed quartets. Cage used the I Ching to determine which notes are played by a given instrument. The piece seems very simple from looking at the score. But in fact the fragmentary character of the instrumentation makes it a great challenge to perform. Every musician has to count precisely so as not to miss his or her entry. But the most difficult requirement is fitting the few notes to be played into the overall structure such that meaningful phrases ultimately result. Only by carefully listening to and following the music can players cause the piece to resound. – Daniel Grossmann
	DONAUESCHINGER MUSIKTAGE 2006, VOLUME 4 Label: NEOS SACD 10727 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS!!! MAURICIO KAGEL (*1931): Divertimento?, Farce for Ensemble (2005/2006) ALBERTO POSADAS (*1967): Anamorfosis for large ensemble (2006) Schönberg Ensemble Amsterdam/Reinbert de Leeuw Mauricio Kagel, born in Buenos Aires in 1931, studied music, literature, and philosophy there. In 1957 he moved to Germany. He has taught at the Darmstadt Summer Courses; 1964–1965: professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo; 1968: head of the Scandinavian Courses for New Music, Göteborg; 1974: professor of musical theater in Cologne. Awards include the Adolf-Grimme-Preis, the Karl-Sczuka-Preis of the SWR, and the Hörspielpreis der Kriegsblinden. Alberto Posadas, born in Valladolid, Spain, in 1967. He studied composition with Francisco Guerrero in Madrid. Stipend from the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, the audience prize at Ars Musica in Brussels. Lectureship at the Conservatorio de Música de Majadahonda in Madrid.
	JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (1685 – 1750) Label: NEOS SACD 30801 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Goldberg-Variations BWV 988 First recording of the version for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky taking into account the Urtext of the New Bach Edition, Bärenreiter 1977 Swiss Chamber Soloists: Hanna Weinmeister, violin; Jürg Dähler, viola; Thomas Grossenbacher, cello Played on original instruments by Jacobus Stainer. Around the turn of the millennium the idea formed to found a first-class Swiss chamber ensemble that would bring together leading performers on the Swiss scene with renowned guests from abroad for ambitious chamber music projects. Under the direction of Jürg Dähler (Zurich), Daniel Haefliger (Geneva), and Felix Renggli (Basel), the Swiss Chamber Concerts were formed to that end in 1999. For the first time a pan-Swiss chamber music cycle with concerts in Basel, Geneva, Lugano, and Zurich could be offered. With unusual concert programs and first-class interpretations, and thanks to the support and collaboration of famous guests such as Bruno Canino, Heinz Holliger, Thomas Zehetmair, Heinrich Schiff, Christophe Coin, Christoph Prégardien, and many others, the concerts of the Swiss Chamber Soloists quickly became a widely admired part of musical life in Switzerland. The ensemble performs in various combinations, and its repertoire includes not only famous and rediscovered works from the Baroque to Modernism but above all numerous contemporary compositions, many of which were composed for and dedicated to the Swiss Chamber Soloists. They have earned a reputation in particular for performances and radio broadcasts of important contemporary works by Carter, Ferneyhough, Kurtág, Ligeti, Yun, and Zender as well as world premieres of numerous works by Swiss composers such as Blank, Dayer, Furrer-Münch, Gaudibert, Gubler, Haubensak, Holliger, Käser, Kelterborn, Kessler, Kyburz, Lehmann, Moser, Roth, Schnyder, Tognetti, Wyttenbach, Vassena, and Zimmerlin. Already in its very first year of existence, the soloist ensemble was booked for concerts and tours throughout Europe, the United States, and Australia. Numerous CD and radio recordings and countless concert reviews testify to the first-class reputation of this renowned Swiss ensemble.
	ROBERT HP PLATZ (*1951) – PIANO PIECES Label: NEOS SACD 10715 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
“trail” Klavierstück 1 (1981); Klavierstück 2 (1984); Klavierstück 3 (1988); “up” Klavierstück 4 (1997/98); “Unter Segel” Klavierstück 5 (2007) Rolf Hind, piano; EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO des SWR The conductor and composer ROBERT HP PLATZ, born in Baden-Baden in 1951, studied Composition with Wolfgang Fortner and Karlheinz Stockhausen and Conducting with Francis Travis. Performances of his works and his conducting activity (more than three hundred world premieres) have taken him throughout Europe and to Japan and the United States. He has worked with, among others, both orchestras of the Südwestrundfunk, the DSO Berlin and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. For twenty years Platz headed the Ensemble Köln, which he founded, and worked with composers such as Hosokawa, Huber, Stockhausen and Xenakis. Since 1990 he has directed a composition class at the Conservatorium Maastricht that is connected with a seminar on performance practice for New Music. He is a member of the Bureau du Directeur of the electronic studio of the “Centre de Recherches et Formation Musicales de Wallonie” (CRFMW) in Liège and is the principal guest conductor of the ensembles “Alternance” in Paris and “Musica d’Insieme” in Milan.
	LUIGI NONO (1924 – 1990) Label: NEOS SACD 10801/2 Our Price: $38.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Guai ai gelidi mostri for two altos, flute, clarinet, tuba, viola, violoncello, contrabass and live electronics (1983) Noa Frenkel, Susanne Otto, alto; Roberto Fabbriciani, flute; Ernesto Molinari, clarinet; Klaus Burger, tuba; Susan Knight, viola; Christine Theus, violoncello; Ulrich Schneider, contrabass EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO des SWR Michael Acker/Reinhold Braig/Joachim Haas, sound direction André Richard, conductor/artistic director Quando stanno morendo. Diario polacco No. 2 for four female voices, bass flute, violoncello and live electronics (1982) Heike Heilmann/Petra Hoffmann/Alexandra Lubchansky, soprano; Susanne Otto, alto; Roberto Fabbriciani, flute; Christine Theus, violoncello EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO des SWR Michael Acker/Reinhold Braig/Joachim Haas, sound direction André Richard, conductor/artistic director In March 1983 Nono wrote to a close friend, the painter Emilio Vedova, whilst staying in the Black Forest: “I felt at the time, and still feel that I have to compose unforeseen and unforeseeable music for the Carnevali. What interests me personally is [...] not only the grey, not only the prefabricated ruptures, but also the BEAUTIFUL NEWNESS THAT EXPLODES – TRAGICALLY – ALSO VIOLENTLY – BUT WHICH ASPIRES TOWARDS THE MOST GENTLE NEWNESS”. At that time, Nono was in a preparatory phase at the Freiburg Experimentalstudio of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation where, together with director Hans-Peter Haller, he was able to explore new possibilities of structuring time and space and to study live electronics. (2 CDs)
	HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLIOTT CARTER! Label: NEOS SACD 10816 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
ELLIOTT CARTER (*1908) – NEW CHAMBER WORKS – SWISS CHAMBER SOLOISTS EDITION, VOLUME 2 *WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS! Mosaic for chamber ensemble (2004)* Ursula Holliger, harp; Felix Renggli, flute/alto flute/piccolo; Heinz Holliger, oboe/English horn; François Benda, clarinet/bass clarinet; Carolin Widmann, violin; Jürg Dähler, viola; Daniel Haefliger, violoncello; Edicson Ruiz, double-bass Figment IV for viola solo (2007)* Jürg Dähler, viola Enchanted Preludes for flute and violoncello (1988) Felix Renggli, flute; Daniel Haefliger, violoncello Tempo e Tempi for soprano and ensemble (1998/1999) Silvia Nopper, soprano; Heinz Holliger, oboe/English horn; Elmar Schmid, clarinet; Jürg Dähler, violin; Daniel Haefliger, violoncello HBHH for oboe solo (2007)* Heinz Holliger, oboe Two Fragments for String Quartet: Fragment I (1994) & Fragment II (1999) Daria Zappa, 1st violin; Esther Hoppe, 2nd violin; Jürg Dähler, viola; Daniel Haefliger, violoncello Oboe Quartet for oboe and string trio (2001) Emanuel Abbühl, oboe; Jürg Dähler, violin; Christoph Schiller, viola; Daniel Haefliger, violoncello On December 11, 2008, Elliott Carter will celebrate his one-hundredth birthday. To the present day he has tirelessly written outstanding new music full of invention and ingenuity, sophistication and joie de vivre. These recordings of his recent and very latest works, three of which appear for the first time on disk, bear witness to the great admiration, eternal gratitude, and huge delight we feel when we play his music, conveying it with boundless enthusiasm to every corner of the earth.
	ERNST HELMUTH FLAMMER (*1949) – ORCHESTRA WORKS, VOLUME 1 Label: NEOS SACD 10803 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Das erschwiegene Wort!... ausgeweitet… for solo percussion and orchestra (1993/1994) Yuko Suzuki, percussion SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden un Freiburg/Olaf Henzold Interferenza mente sovrapposizione for violoncello, orchestra and live electronics (1988 – 1990) Werner F. Selge, cello SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden un Freiburg/Lothar Zarosek Experimentalstudio des SWR
	KEEPSAKE OF MODERN AGE Label: NEOS SACD 10805 Our Price: $19.00 Quantity in Basket: none
OTTO SIEGL (1896 – 1978): Duo-Sonate, Op. 139 (1949); REBECCA CLARKE (1886 – 1979): Lullaby and Grotesque (1916); PAUL HINDEMITH (1895 – 1963): Duett (1934); GUNTER RAPHAEL (1903 – 1960): Duo für Viola und Violoncello, Op. 47/4 (1941); WITOLD LUTOSLAWSKI (1913 – 1994): Bukoliki (1952/1962); DARIUS MILHAUD (1892 – 1974): Sonatine pour alto et violoncello, Op. 378 (1959); SIEGMUND SCHUL (1916 – 1944): Chassidische Tänze, Op. 15 (1941/1942) Julia Rebekka Adler, viola Thomas Ruge, cello