![Fiori Musicali Austria – Baroque Arabesque (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/11/27/ordgaat3exlga_600.md.jpg)
Fiori Musicali Austria – Baroque Arabesque (2022) [FLAC 24 bit, 44,1 kHz]
The Ensemble Fiori Musicali Austria was founded by the Italian harpsichordist and pianist Marinka Brecelj in 2002 to perform Renaissance and Baroque music from Italy. Over the years, crossover elements of traditional Italian, Sephardic, Oriental or South American music have also enriched the spectrum, as can be impressively experienced on the album “Baroque Arabesque”.
![Elena Denisova,Alexei Kornienko – A New Night Music (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/01/28/ddzyy4fvet3jb_600.md.jpg)
Elena Denisova,Alexei Kornienko – A New Night Music (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
No time of day has presumably been set to music more often than the nighttime. On this album violinist Elena Denisova and pianist Alexei Kornienko are featuring nocturnal works of the 20th and 21st century. Canto crepuscolare by Gian Francesco Malipiero, dating from 1908, is still a playful impressionist composition, while the Nocturne for violin and piano by John Cage (1947) rather revels the silence. A calm and melancholic vision is painted by Helmut Rogl’s Ein Traum zur halben Nacht (A Dream at Midnight, 1986), whereas Notturno (2007) by Michael Colina and Incubus, Fantasy for violin, piano and electronics (2020/21) by Alfred Huber depict the eerie and scary traits of nighttime. Like the work by Huber, Durch die Nacht (Through the Night) for violin and pre-recorded electroacoustics by Dieter Kaufmann (2020/21) as well as all the darkness we can hear – all the silence we can see (2020/21) by Oscar Jockel are world-premiere recordings.
![Ensemble Trisonate – Unfolding (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/04/03/n69x8pr8cd6aa_600.md.jpg)
Ensemble Trisonate – Unfolding (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
The Ensemble Trisonante was founded in 2015 and has since developed into an internationally sought-after and regularly performing piano trio. With their debut CD “Unfolding”, the three musicians Christina Leeb-Grill, piano, Cecilia Sipos, cello, and Luís Morais, violin, go into discovery mode in the early work of great composers. Franz Schubert composed the Sonatensatz in B flat major, D 28, in 1812, when he was just 15 years old; Nevertheless, it is not difficult to discover the composer’s very own tone. Claude Debussy wrote his first chamber music work, the Piano Trio in G major, at the age of 18; Like Schubert’s work, it was not published until almost 100 years after it was written. Also at the age of 18, Sergei Rachmaninov composed the one-movement Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor, which formed the prerequisite for a much expanded piano trio only two years later. Dmitri Shostakovich’s first chamber music work is the Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8, which today is one of the most popular piano trios of the 20th century.
![Ensemble Vox Archangeli, Manuel Schuen – Regina Angelorum (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/01/29/o1y631soyt5fb_600.md.jpg)
Ensemble Vox Archangeli, Manuel Schuen – Regina Angelorum (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
Hans Leo Hassler is considered one of the most significant personalities among Late Renaissance composers in the German-speaking world. A striking number of his works have been published as printed editions early on, for instance in 1590, when he only was aged 24, the Canzonette a quatro voci in Nuremberg and one year later in Augsburg the Cantiones sacrae, where among others the motets Dixit Maria and Beata es virgo Maria as well as the Magnificat octavi toni have first been released. In his Missa octo vocum, the mass for eight-part double choir, Hassler follows the sequence of the Catholic mass with its six parts that comprise its ordinary: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. The Ensemble Vox Archangeli is directed by bassist Manuel Schuen, who is also performing on the Sieber-organ at St Michael’s Church in Vienna.
![Daniel Gutmann, Maximilian Kromer – Tränenflut (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/07/27/ewaydtplxcdbc_600.md.jpg)
Daniel Gutmann, Maximilian Kromer – Tränenflut (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
The young, already internationally successful Austrian baritone and ensemble member of the Munich Gärtnerplatztheater Daniel Gutmann presents songs by Robert Schumann based on poems by Heinrich Heine with Maximilian Kromer, piano, on this CD. In addition to Schumann’s most popular song cycle, “Dichterliebe” Op. 48, from which the title of this album, “Tränenflut”, is taken, this recording also finds the “Liederkreis” Op. 24 with it’s nine songs enter this compilation. In addition, Gutmann and Kromer interpret with “Belshazzar”, Op. 57, and “Die zwei Grenadiere”, Op. 49/1, Schumann’s settings of two of the German poet’s best-known ballads.
![Divinerinnen – Tanz’ von innen (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/21/z0jmwws7bib4b_600.md.jpg)
Divinerinnen – Tanz’ von innen (2021) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Viennese dance music and Wienerlied was referred to as Schrammelmusik ever since the work of the brothers Johann and Josef Schrammel and enjoyed great popularity at the Heurigenlokal (Viennese wine taverns) as well as in the palaces and saloons of Viennese aristocracy. The debut recording of the young Austrian women’s ensemble Divinerinnen presents varied sonic impressions of traditional dance sketches interwoven with additional musical characteristics of Viennese entertainment culture. With a focus on variety in their instrumentation, the ensemble’s repertoire ranges from hidden treasures from the archive to the rarely played, all the way to compositions by contemporaries. The sound worlds produced by the instrumental cast with violins, contraguitar, clarinet, Viennese button accordion, viola and cello gives expression to the group’s intention to break established norms and listening habits.
![Die Kolophonistinnen – Heldinnenleben (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/12/20/xk5xnwirm737a_600.md.jpg)
Die Kolophonistinnen – Heldinnenleben (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 88,2 kHz]
Ever since the film during the intermission of the 2017 Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert, the “Kolophonistinnen” cello quartet has made a striking impression on a broad public. With their commitment and their enthusiasm, performances by the four young women – Hannah Amann, Marlene Förstel, Theresa Laun and Elisabeth Herrmann – take listeners’ hearts by storm. For their debut album, the “Heldinnen” (“heroines,” an affectionate and appreciative appellation by their teacher) have compiled an exciting program rich in contrast, in keeping with their characters, full of Viennese esprit and Slavic soul, world-famous melodies from blockbuster movies, as well as fascinating new pieces by top Austrian musicians Florian Bramböck and Matthias Bartolomey.
![Cornelia Horak, Richard Fuller – Britain’s Glory (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/10/31/pqtla0ikfj9aa_600.md.jpg)
Cornelia Horak, Richard Fuller – Britain’s Glory (2020) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Cornelia Horak traces Joseph Haydn’s years of travel in England in search of the dawn of Classical-era song. Together with Richard Fuller on fortepiano, an acknowledged expert in this era, the internationally renowned Austrian soprano applies her talents to the “original canzonettas” that the composer wrote in the mid-1790s, most of them on texts by his British friend Anne Hunter. They represent an elaborate further development of the German-language songs Haydn had written up to that point and form one of the starting points for the immediately proceeding flights of fancy in this genre.
![Oberösterreichisches Jugendsinfonieorchester, Rémy Ballot – Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A Major, WAB 106 (1881 version, ed. B.-G. Cohrs) (2017) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/09/15/9003643991279_600.md.jpg)
Oberösterreichisches Jugendsinfonieorchester, Rémy Ballot – Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A Major, WAB 106 (1881 version, ed. B.-G. Cohrs) (2017) [FLAC 24 bit, 192 kHz]
This live recording brings together an extraordinary combination of artistic abundance: Remy Ballot conducting the music of Anton Bruckner, enacted at Bruckner’s place of work, the basilica of St. Florian in Upper Austria. Captured at the annual festival Brucknertage, the musical youth of the Upper Austrian Symphonic Youth Orchestra enjoyed the great honour to give a celebrated performance in a one-of-a-kind setting. The vigour and professionalism joined by the intuition of Ballot provide for some goosebumps and appends another worthy opus to a series which has been critically acclaimed and lavished with prestigious international awards.
![Bogdan Laketic – Made in Vienna (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/07/01/w6axxl1y777ib_600.md.jpg)
Bogdan Laketic – Made in Vienna (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 48 kHz]
For many decades, the accordion has had a reputation as an instrument of folk music, ballrooms and street players all over the world. Its technical and cultural development can be traced back to its invention and patenting by Cyrill Demian in 1829 on Mariahilfer Straße in Vienna. The Vienna-based accordionist Bogdan Laketic dedicates his debut album “Made in Vienna” to this, “his” city, and chooses works by composers who are also directly connected with Vienna. So are the sonatas for piano in A-flat major, Hob. XVI:46 and in E minor, Hob. XVI:34 by Joseph Haydn, the Six Little Piano Pieces op. 19 by Arnold Schoenberg and the Soirées de Vienne, p. 427 No. 6 by Franz Liszt can be heard in their own arrangements. Also based in Vienna is the Belgian composer Dirk D’ase, who published the work Figuren /Inductions in 2011, in which the diversity of the sound production of the accordion is once again brought to bear.
![Anna Volovitch – Contemplations (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/25/euix0yg5aofbc_600.md.jpg)
Anna Volovitch – Contemplations (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
Syrian-Emirati composer Somar Ajalyaqin (b. 1978) started his relationship with the arts at an early age in his hometown Damascus. After having studied both poetry and painting, he began his musical journey on his mother’s advice, as she advocated a holistic approach to artistic expression. This debut album with Anna Volovitch, piano, Christoph Croisé, cello, Heinz-Peter Linshalm, clarinet and the Santos String Quartet features a collection of compositions in varied styles and instrumentation: from the Five Piano Pieces with playful titles such as The Cat and the Wool Ball, Capriccio Andalucía or The Butterfly and the Flame, to the Sonata for Cello and Piano and the Fantasy for E-flat Clarinet and Piano ‘The Cricket in the Mirror’, a wide spectrum of sound and expression is represented here. The intensely touching String Quartet ‘Wuhan Oblivion’, the composer’s most recent work, paints not only a picture of our eerie streets, abandoned during lockdown, but mostly a picture of our inner lives as we fight to overcome this paradoxal moment of communal loneliness.
![Amiram Ganz – Accords contrastants (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2023/03/29/blvwqpcpq6pab_600.md.jpg)
Amiram Ganz – Accords contrastants (2023) [FLAC 24 bit, 96 kHz]
Vater und Sohn Amiram (Violine) und Maxime Ganz (Violoncello) präsentieren auf ihrer ersten gemeinsamen CD-Einspielung mit Solo-Sonaten und Duos aus der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts unter dem Titel »Accords contrastants« ein höchst anspruchsvolles Programm. Beginnend mit dem Duo für Violine und Violoncello op. 7 (1914) von Zoltán Kodály, dem ungarischen Komponisten und Volksmusikforscher, der neben Bartók den bedeutendsten Einfluss auf die Entwicklung einer nationalen musikalischen Identität Ungarns hatte. Von Letzterem stammt – bereits aus der Zeit des US-amerikanischen Exils, nämlich 1944 – die Sonate für Violine solo Sz. 117, die formal von den Bach’schen Sonaten und Partiten inspiriert ist, und sich voll halsbrecherischer Virtuosität zeigt. Den ersten Teil, Dialogo, der zweisätzigen Sonate für Violoncello solo komponierte der ebenfalls aus dem damaligen Ungarn stammende György Ligeti im Jahr 1948, und fügte dem Werk dann fünf Jahre später einen weiteren Satz, Capriccio, hinzu, mit dem er das Werk vollendete.
![Altomonte Ensemble, Rémy Ballot – Bruckner: String Quintet in F Major, WAB 112 & String Quartet in C Minor, WAB 111 (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/06/12/nr1oyqugikjqa_600.md.jpg)
Altomonte Ensemble, Rémy Ballot – Bruckner: String Quintet in F Major, WAB 112 & String Quartet in C Minor, WAB 111 (2021) [FLAC 24bit, 96 kHz]
Anton Bruckner embarked on his studies with the Linz-based Kapellmeister Otto Kitzler in the fall of 1861 and it was Kitzler who put him in touch with the music of Franz Liszt, Hector Berlioz, and Richard Wagner. In their lessons, they drew on Ernst Friedrich Richter’s primer Formenlehre but also the rather forward-looking textbook of Adolph Bernhard Marx’ and Johann Christian Lobe’s, which familiarized Bruckner with modern instrumentation that went well beyond the style of Viennese classicism.
![Altomonte Orchester St. Florian – Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-Flat Major, WAB 104, “Romantic” (1888 version) (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 192 kHz]](https://imghd.xyz/images/2022/08/24/htb58cvmtkvhc_600.md.jpg)
Altomonte Orchester St. Florian – Bruckner: Symphony No. 4 in E-Flat Major, WAB 104, “Romantic” (1888 version) (2022) [FLAC 24bit, 192 kHz]
In dieser Liveaufnahme aus der Stiftsbasilika St. Florian dirigiert Rémy Ballot die 3. Fassung von Anton Bruckners Vierter Symphonie, der sogenannten ‘Romantischen’, die 1996 vom Bruckner-Forscher Benjamin Korstvedt wiederentdeckt und 2004 neu editiert wurde. Seinem erklärenden Text im Booklet zufolge hält Ballot diese Fassung für die wirklich endgültige, die, welche dem entwickelten Geist Bruckners entspricht und das « Werk eines Genies ist, das seine Schöpfung verfeinert, um sie dem Hörer noch zugänglicher zu machen. »
Vor allem aber weiß Ballot mit dieser Akustik umzugehen und sie für seine Interpretation vorteilhaft zu nutzen. Diese hat Raum und Atem.
Die Erregtheit des 1. Satzes ist ebenso zwingend wie es die expansive Ruhe und die aus feinsten Klängen ins Riesige gesteuerten Steigerungen des zweiten sind, oder der an Zuversicht und Aufbruchsenergie gewinnende dritte Satz. Im Finale werden die vorher geäußerten Gedanken wie im Brennglas gebündelt und mit viel Spannung und gewaltigen Steigerungen zum Jubilieren gebracht. Zwischendurch wird auch ausgeatmet und Bruckners vergnügte Zwischengedanken können aufblühen.
In this live recording from the St. Florian Abbey Basilica, Rémy Ballot conducts the 3rd version of Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, the so-called ‘Romantic’, which was rediscovered by Bruckner scholar Benjamin Korstvedt in 1996 and edited in 2004. According to his explanatory text in the booklet, Ballot considers this version to be the truly definitive one, the one that corresponds to Bruckner’s developed spirit and is the « work of a genius refining his creation to make it even more accessible to the listener. »