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Sergey Malov – Bach, 6 Suites for Violoncello solo

Artist: Sergey Malov

Title: Bach, 6 Suites for Violoncello solo

Catalogue No.: SM 343

Release: 10.04.2020

Description

The personal story of the cello played braced against the shoulder (violoncello da spalla) began, when Sergey Malov first listened to a vinyl recording of Bach’s cello suites played by the legendary Pablo Casals from his father’s collection. Later on, when he listening to the recordings he could not get rid of the feeling that this light and dancing music does not after all fit that well with such a heavy big instrument as a cello. Although perhaps he just wanted to play these amazing pieces himself. Malov was dreaming about playing them authentically. He had no idea though what that authentic way was like and how he could place such a huge bass instrument on my shoulder. One cold winter day in 2009 he accidentally found a video recording of Allemanda from the 2nd Bach Cello Suite played by Dmitry Badiarov – a violin maker, co-author of the violoncello da spalla revival project and an inspiring violinist himself. 

Suddenly his boldest dreams and phantasies came true in a most detailed way. Moreover, he remembered that back in the day, probably still in Leningrad, his mother once took him to a man with curly black hair and blue eyes, a violin maker who had to check his little violin – that man was Dmitry Badiarov. Malov used this fragile bridge from the past to get in touch with him. Soon, when he realized that I could quickly learn to play the violoncello da spalla, he asked Dmitry to make one for me.…

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Schola Heidelberg – Parole e Testi

Artist: Schola Heidelberg

Title: Parole e Testi

Catalogue No.: Divox CDX-21701

Release: 03.04.2020

Solo Musica Shop

Description

Experimental vocal and instrumental compositions from the second half of the previous century, closely connected in text and thought with Italian poetry, convey an impression of the philosophy and compositional methods of the two musicians Luigi Nono (1924-1990) and Salvatore Sciarrino (b. 1947), which were similar in several aspects. The title of the CD, Parole e Testi, is thus meant quite literally. The singers of SCHOLA HEIDELBERG under Walter Nußbaum – accomplished performers of new vocal music – sing Nono’s chant Sarà dolce tacere on a text by Cesare Pavese (1960) as well as Sciarrino’s ensemble pieces L’alibi della parola (1994) and Tre canti senza pietre (1999) – both setting verse from various sources. Nono’s early compositional art, which culminated in Polifonica – Monodia – Ritmica for six instruments and percussion (1951), is performed by the ensemble aisthesis from Heidelberg in 2005 in the reconstructed, unabridged version which Nono originally created (presented on CD for the first time here). The abridged version, in which the work had its world premiere at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music under the baton of Hermann Scherchen in 1951, completes the CD as a bonus track.

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Albena Petrovic & Plamena Mangova – Bridges of Love

Artists: Albena Petrovic & Plamena Mangova

Title: Bridges of Love

Catalogue No.: SM 337

Release: 27.03.2020

Description

Albena Petrovic, the Luxembourgish composer of Bulgarian origin, has meanwhile made a name for herself far beyond the borders of the duchy – with more than 600 compositions in a wide variety of genres and instrumentations, including operas, concerts, chamber music, vocal and solo piano works, which have been published, recorded on CD’s and performed worldwide. Now her new album Bridges of Love, which combines highlights of her piano work with new compositions, will be available worldwide in March 2020. The interpretation is in the hands of her congenial compatriot Plamena Mangova. The Bulgarian pianist first attracted international attention when she won second prize at the renowned Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels in 2007. Since then she has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Berlin, the BBC Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Rotterdam, Radio France, Luxembourg and Tokyo, and has played alongside artists such as Sir Colin Davis, Lawrence Foster, Renaud Capuçon and Maria João Pires. Her recordings have been honoured many times with awards such as the ‘Diapason d’Or de l’Année’.

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Michael Winkler plays Francisco Tárrega

Artist: Michael Winkler

Title: Michael Winkler plays Francisco Tárrega

Catalogue No.: EOS 234200-15

Release: 13.03.2020

Description

The guitarist Michael Winkler is internationally known as a musical frontier crosser, especially through the Eos Guitar Quartet. After his debut LP, the highly acclaimed Bach album and the CD midlife with original compositions, he now presents his fourth solo album with original compositions by Tárrega.

Francisco Tárrega 1852-1909, was a Spanish guitarist and composer. He is still considered the founder of modern guitar playing and the most prominent guitarist and teacher of his era. “When I first heard Tárrega’s music as a young man, I was immediately in love with the melodies, harmonies and elegance of his waltzes. I played the pieces at every opportunity until they became “my” pieces. Later I discovered polyphony and forgot about Tárrega’s music, until finally in 2019 I dared to reinterpret it with a grasp of my eyes. I interpreted many things more slenderly and rhythmically tighter than at that time, thought phrasings larger, but also took more time. The beautiful spatial sound of the band supported my joy of playing, stimulated my creativity and fulfilled my wish to record the CD in a natural acoustic.

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Il Furibondo – String Trios by Max Reger

Artist: Il Furibondo

Title: String Trios by Max Reger

Catalogue No.: SM 323

Release: 28.02.2020

Description

In the almost three years since his move from Weiden to the music centre in Munich, Reger had acquired the reputation of an “enfant terrible of German music” with harmonically bold and tonally uncompromisingly becoming song collections, organ and chamber music works. Opus 77, consisting of a Serenade in D major for flute, violin and viola as well as the String Trio in A minor op. 77b, which grew up in April and June 1904 respectively, should, according to the composer’s will, be a work of a change of style. When Reger composed a further work in this instrumentation eleven years later with the String Trio in D minor op. 141b, the often performed first contribution already served as a reference work of a revived genre.

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Various & Larynx Vokalensemble – Martha von Castelberg. Lieder und Motetten

Artists: Poscio / Humm / Haberfeld / Burnens / Polgar & Larynx Vokalensemble

Title: Martha von Castelberg – Lieder und Motetten

Catalogue No.: SM 334

Release: 14.02.2020

Description

Martha von Castelberg (1892-1971) was highly talented musically. As the daughter of the Zurich private banker Paul Carl Eduard von Orelli (1849-1927) and Beatrice née von Reding (1865-1929), she received early private lessons from the violinist Joseph Ebner, who taught at the Zurich Conservatory. The present recording of songs and motets by Martha von Castelberg gives a representative insight into her compositional Creating, which accompanied her all her life.

In addition to the Basel-based “larynx Vokalensemble” founded in 2005 under the direction of Jakob Pilgram, consisting of young, professionally trained singers, this CD also features many renowned Swiss soloists. Accompanied by Judit Polgar on piano, we hear the Swiss soprano Estelle Poscio, the mezzo-soprano Susannah Haberfeld, the Bernese tenor Remy Burnens and the young Swiss baritone Äneas Humm.

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Voyager Quartet – Schubert Winterreise

Artist: Voyager Quartet

Title: Schubert – Winterreise for String Quartet

Catalogue No.: SM 335

Release: 17.01.2020

Description

In his groundbreaking Lieder cycle Winterreise, Franz Schubert brought to the fore the dark side of the yearning for happiness that channels into obsessions, fears, a sense of danger, feelings of forlornness, bleakness and exposure in hitherto unknown dimensions and with a sense of urgency. His songs for instruments can be viewed as the dissolution of Classical genre boundaries. Something that initially one can barely imagine soon develops into an addictive nature: we begin to understand this aural picture even without the singing – a true work of art. A kind of intellectual sorrow pervades the richly varied treatment. The Voyager Quartet was founded in 2014. Its members can all look back on successful careers in famous string quartets such as the Cherubini Quartet and Modern String Quartet, and in world-class orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of Bavarian Radio. The members of the Voyager Quartet thus combine a wealth of experience in numerous concerts worldwide at renowned music festivals and in famous concert venues, which they have successfully fed into all manner of high-quality concert programmes over recent years.

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Trio Fontane – Hermann Goetz / Hans Huber – Klaviertrios

Artist: Trio Fontane

Title: Hermann Goetz / Hans Huber – Klaviertrios

Catalogue No.: SM 336

Release: 10.01.2020

Description

Ever since it was founded, the Swiss chamber ensemble Trio Fontane has consisted of Andrea Wiesli (piano), Noëlle Grüebler (violin) and Jonas Kreienbühl (cello). The trio was formed in 2002 and received instruction from Ulrich Koella and Stephan Goerner (Carmina Quartet) at the Musikhochschule in Zurich. The ensemble was judged the best piano trio at the 2007 Migros Culture Percentage chamber music competition and accepted into the “Young Musicians” artist exchange. The three performers received further support from the Thiébaud-Frey Foundation, the Hans Schaeuble Foundation and the International Herzogenberg Society.

The Music Department of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich was set up in 1971 and rapidly established itself as an academic collection of European status. Alongside large holdings of printed and recorded music, the Department is home to one of the world’s largest collections of Wagneriana and now serves as a major repository of Swiss music manuscripts from the past 200 years. The Central Library wishes to put the materials entrusted to it to the best possible use in many different ways. Accordingly it has begun a series of CDs with music from its acquisitions, from tenor songs by Zwingli to music of the late 20th century. It also runs its own lunchtime concert series Mittagsmusik im Predigerchor in which each programme features at least one work that is held in the Central Library as a manuscript, first edition or early printed document. On the CD you can hear the New Year’s pieces of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich: the Piano Trio op. 20 by Hans Huber and the Piano Trio op. 1 by Hermann Goetz.

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Kammerorchester Basel & Christoph Prégardien – Der Einsiedler

Artists: Kammerorchester Basel & Christoph Prégardien & Camerata Vocale Freiburg / Winfried Toll

Title: Requiem, Op. 144b / Der Einsiedler, Op.144a von Max Reger

Catalogue No.: SM 328

Release: 22.11.2019

Solo Musica Shop

Description

Mehrfach setzte Max Reger zur Komposition eines Requiems an. Ein Jahr vor seinem Tod ist ihm mit der Vertonung des Gedichtes »Requiem« von Friedrich Hebbel ein Werk gelungen, in dem er, ohne eindeutig christliche Bezüge, gegen das Vergessenwerden appelliert.
Die Werke dieser CD setzen den 1916 verstorbenen Komponisten in spannende Bezüge mit seinen Zeitgenossen Gustav Mahler und Alexander von Zemlinsky. Das Kammerorchester Basel gilt als eines der führenden Kammerorchester des internationalen Musiklebens. Einladungen in die bedeutendsten Konzerthäuser und Festivals weltweit prägen die Agenda ebenso wie die eigene Konzertreihe in Basel. Seine klare und präzise Stimmführung sowie seine intelligente Deutung und Diktion, gepaart mit der Fähigkeit, sich in den psychologischen Kern einer Rolle zu begeben, machen Christoph Prégardien zu einem der bedeutendsten lyrischen Tenöre unserer Zeit.
Die Camerata Vocale Freiburg gehört zu den gefragtesten Deutschen Kammerchören. 1977 wurde das Ensemble von einer studentischen Gruppe gegründet und arbeitete zunächst ohne Dirigenten, bis man sich entschloss, einen künstlerischen Leiter zu berufen. Seit 1988 hat Winfried Toll dieses Amt inne.

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Jörg Ulrich Krah & Bernhard Parz – Postscriptum B.

Artists: Jörg Ulrich Krah & Bernhard Parz

Title: Postscriptum B.

Catalogue No.: SM 320

Release: 22.11.2019

Solo Musica Shop

Description

With the present album postscriptum B. Jörg Ulrich Krah and Bernhard Parz fulfilled a long-standing dream.
More than ten years ago, they had the idea to record and publish the violoncello sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven. They were inspired by a recording whose concept sets new accents, taking into account the long-standing interpretation history and brings Beethoven’s music to life. By bridging the gap to contemporary music by Georg Katzer, Beethoven’s modernity and his curiosity to always look ahead are addressed. Like Beethoven, Katzer was always forward-looking. Like Beethoven, he was able to combine craftsmanship with a high degree of fantasy and poetry. Like Beethoven – and also the two interpreters of the present recording – Georg could be met with a good glass of wine and an inspiring conversation about music and life.

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https://open.spotify.com/album/3FXiX215IP715s03Li9P8W