Description

Then as now, the music of „Les Six“ is a fascinating kaleidoscope of musical ideas and friendship; an idiosyncratic preciousness full of musical avant-garde, everyday melancholy, profound curiosities, virtuosity and passion that is in need of rediscovery.

The collaborative work „L’Album des Six“ was created in 1920, to which each of the six composers Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre contributed a piece. Arranged alphabetically, the album summarises the composers through their connection with various aesthetic ideas, different personalities and lifelong friendship. 100 years later, the „L’Album des Six“ is expanded with corresponding song cycles from their oeuvres: In addition to well-known compositions by Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, the first releases of the song cycles by Georges Auric (1940) and Louis Durey (1920) enrich the CD in a special way.

Description

THE TWIOLINS are the siblings Marie-Luise and Christoph Dingler, specialists in the violin duo genre. Having grown up in a musical environment, they have achieved the highest degree of interplay and a unique sound identity through their shared curriculum vitae and constant playing together.

Why Vivaldi and Piazzolla? Or to put it another way: why, after more than ten years of searching and working on new compositions, does the duo now devote itself to two deceased composers who could hardly be more opposite? Adapting Kremer’s project Eight Seasons and transforming it into a typical “Twiolins project” is unusual for the TWIOLINS, but it was almost dreamwalkingly simple. Thus it was clear to the duo that the Eight Seasons had to evolve, through their own interpretation, transformation and growth. In short: an evolution was necessary.

Nevertheless, it was an adventure to play the Four Seasons from Vivaldi on two violins arrange. Years of playing together gave them enough experience to be able to present Vivaldi’s masterpiece appropriately – without reducing the content of the work. Both Vivaldi and Piazzolla have undergone a transformation and show us new aspects in this chamber music version that have never been heard before in these great works of world literature …

Description

Der Struwwelpeter – a (hairy) radio play, played and sung by a quartet of the Basel Chamber Orchestra

„Look, here it is. Fie! The mophead…“ The eight famous stories from the timeless children’s book in witty, theatrical settings and arrangements by Konstantin Timokhine as an audio CD: Directed by Salomé Im Hof, the musicians Ewa Miribung (violin, banjo), Georg Dettweiler (cello), Konstantin Timokhine (horn) and Jan Wollmann (trumpet) from the Basel Chamber Orchestra play, sing and tell the popular stories in a colourful, rhythmic and groovy, profound and poetic way: for young and old, recommended from 5 years on. The four stories „Der böse Friedrich“, „Paulinchen mit dem Feuerzeug“, „Zappel-Philipp“ and „Hans-Guck-in-die-Luft“ were arranged for the CD and extended with the four other stories „von den schwarzen Buben“, „Daumenlutscher“, „Suppen-Kaspar“ and „Zappel-Philipp“. The original chronological order of the original book has been retained, so it is easy to read along and follow the pictures. Between the episodes, questions are asked in short intermezzi – spoken by and for children. Stimulating to form one’s own thoughts and valuable as a mediating aspect of the audio CD!

Description

CHOROS / ΧΟΡΟΣ: dialogues and alternating chants with music for the Oidípous Týrannos by Sophocles and for chorus poetry by Archilochos, Alkman and Sappho.

The music for CHOROS / ΧΟΡΟΣ made for texts from the 7th to 5th centuries BC came about through an intensive approach to the ancient world of sound: the instruments reconstructed by Paul J. Reichlin formed the basis of the music. These are the result of over 20 years of intensive collaboration between an instrument maker and a music archeologist. Instrument parts in various museums, countless vase paintings and reliefs from the period 700 to 500 BC served as sources, as well as literary documents. Another important source of knowledge as to how ancient Greek music might have sounded are the peculiarities of the ancient Greek language, which allow conclusions to be drawn about the music.

This extraordinary CD for the revival of dramatic choirs of Greek classical music follows earlier projects by the Ensemble Melpomen such as Olympionikais (Pindar’s Olympian Odes) for the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens or Sappho and Melpomen, music for an Athens symposium, which have already been released on CD.

You can download a list of the instruments used here