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icola Antonio Porpora (17 August 1686 - 3 March 1768) was an Italian composer and teacher of singing of the Baroque era, whose most famous singing students were the castrati Farinelli and Caffarelli. Other students included composers Matteo Capranica and Joseph Haydn. Porpora was born in Naples. He graduated from the music conservatory Poveri di Gesù Cristo of his native city, where the civic opera scene was dominated by Alessandro Scarlatti. Porpora's first opera, Agrippina, was successfully performed at the Neapolitan court in 1708. His second, Berenice, was performed at Rome. In a long career, he followed these up by many further operas, supported as maestro di cappella in the households of aristocratic patrons, such as the commander of military forces at Naples, prince Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt, or of the Portuguese ambassador at Rome, for composing operas alone did not yet make a viable career. However, his enduring fame rests chiefly upon his unequalled power of teaching singing. At the Neapolitan Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio and with the Poveri di Gesù Cristo he trained Farinelli, Caffarelli, Salimbeni, and other celebrated vocalists, during the period 1715 to 1721. In 1720 and 1721 he wrote two serenades to libretti by a gifted young poet, Metastasio, the beginning of a long, though interrupted, collaboration. In 1722 his operatic successes encouraged him to lay down his conservatory commitments. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Israel in Egypt by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

During the second half of the 17th century, there were trends toward the secularization of the religious oratorio. Evidence of this lies in its regular performance outside church halls in courts and public theaters. Whether religious or secular, the theme of an oratorio is meant to be weighty. It could include such topics as Creation, the life of Jesus, or the career of a classical hero or biblical prophet. Other changes eventually took place as well, possibly because most composers of oratorios were also popular composers of operas. They began to publish the librettos of their oratorios as they did for their operas. George Frideric Handel also wrote secular oratorios based on themes from Greek and Roman mythology. He is also credited with writing the first English language oratorio. "Israel in Egypt", the fifth of the nineteen oratorios which Handel composed in England, was written in 1738, the composition of the whole colossal work occupying but twenty-seven days. It was first performed April 4, 1739, at the King's Theatre, of which Handel was then manager. It is essentially a choral oratorio. It comprises no less than twenty-eight massive double choruses, linked together by a few bars of recitative, with five arias and three duets interspersed among them. Unlike Handel's other oratorios, there is no overture or even prelude to the work. Therefore - exactly how conductor Jürgen Budday did it - many artists starts the performance of "Israel in Egypt" with the Overture from the Oratorio "Solomon". Especially because of the fact, that Handel replaced in 1756 the first part of "Israel in Egypt" (which was originally a funeral anthem for Queen Caroline) through an shortened version of the first act from his oratorio "Solomon". Handel's London oratorios usually includes three parts or acts. However, "Israel in Egypt" has been published and almost performed with two parts, which follows the compositional technique for Oratorios in Italy. The first part describes "the exodus" of the Israelites from Egypt to escape the slavery. The second part, "The Song of Moses", is basically a huge praise and victory anthem, which reflects the persecution and salvation. It ends in praise and glory to the Lord. A short double chorus ("The Lord shall reign for ever and ever"), a few bars of recitative referring to the escape of Israel, the choral outburst once more repeated, and then the solo voice declaring ("Miriam the prophetess took a trimbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances; and Miriam answered them"), lead to the final song of triumph - that grand, jubilant, overpowering expression of victory which, beginning with the exultant strain of Miriam ("Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously"), is amplified by voice upon voice in the great eight-part choir, and by instrument upon instrument, until it becomes a tempest of harmony, interwoven with the triumph of Miriam's cry and the exultation of the great host over the enemy's discomfiture, and closing with the combined power of voices and instruments in harmonious accord as they once more repeat Miriam's words ("The Horse and his Rider hath He thrown into the Sea").
This live recording of "Israel in Egypt" is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 415 Hz).

Musique baroque de Telemann

The primary occupation of the Wolfgang Bauer Consort is the performance of authentic Baroque chamber music pieces. The English Baroque term "Consort" accurately describes an ensemble comprising one or two soloists and a continuo of cello and harpsichord. The Consort's open structure provides the fundament for the comprehensive array and musical diversity of this performance in the monastery church, whose outstanding acoustics and atmosphere are able to document the complete range of Baroque virtuosity. Wolfgang Bauer studied in Berlin with Konradin Groth at the Berlin Philharmonic's Orchesterakademie. At the age of 21 he was taken on by the RSO Franfurt while still a student as principal solo trumpeter. He stayed with that orchestra for 12 years and was also solo trumpeter with the symphony orchestra of Bavarian Radio. He has attended intensive study courses with Lutz Köhler and Ed. H. Tarr. His breakthrough as a soloist came in 1993, when Wolfgang Bauer won the German Music Competition and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in quick succession. Since then, he has been acknowledged as one of the leading trumpeters of his generation and has appeared as a soloist with famous orchestras like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Orchestre National de France, the SO of Bavarian Radio, the radio symphony orchestras of Stuttgart and Frankfurt, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Radio Philharmonic of Hanover, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharminic, and the Württemberg and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra under conductors like Lorin Maazel, Carl St Clair, Donald Runnicles, Dimitri Kitayenko, Andrey Boreyko, Denis R. Davis and Eliahu Inbal. In 2000 Wolfgang Bauer was appointed a professor of trumpet at the "University of music and performing arts" in Stuttgart. In 2009 he was honoured with the ECHO Klassik as "best instrumental soloist of the year". Since its foundation in 1994 the "Wolfgang Bauer Consort" was invited to festivals like the "Rheingau Music Festival", the "Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival" and the "Summer Festival" in Bad Kissingen. Beside tv- and radio-productions for "Hessischer Rundfunk" (Hessian Broadcasting) and "Norddeutscher Rundfunk" (North German Broadcasting) the Consort released a honoured CD for children in 2005 and another live-recording from Maulbronn Abbey, which includes the 2nd Brandenburg Concerto by J.S. Bach et al. This concert was performed by Dietlind Mayer, Violin at "il capriccio" for example, Ludwig Hampe, sought specialist on the viola d'amore and soloist in the "Frankfurt Opera Orchestra", and Petra Müllejans, one of the leading baroque violinists in Europe. She is professor at the Academy of Music in Frankfurt and concert master, musical director, soloist and chamber musician of the "Freiburg Baroque Orchestra". One focus of her musical work is chamber music from the 17th and 18th century, which she performs with the "Freiburg Baroque Consort" and the Ensemble "The Age of Passions". The woodwind group was Georg Siebert (oboe), Ingo Goritzki (oboe) - professor at the Academy of Music in Stuttgart - and Arie Hordijk on bassoon. The Trumpet section consisted of Wolfgang Bauer, Tobias Ziegler and Martin Maier (Stuttgart State Opera), supported on timpani by Gregor Daszko. The basso continuo (figured bass) with Thomas Strauss on harpsichord and Clemens Weigel on cello form the basis of the Consort. Both are renowned baroque specialists. Thomas Strauss is cantor in Oppenau, Clemens Weigel is cellist on "Gärtnerplatztheater" Munich. The double bass is performed by Davide Vittone.

Opera without Voices
Highlights from the Opera "Carmen" by Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
and the Opera "Don Giovanni" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

The Arte Ensemble, founded in 1993 from soloists of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, is playing in various sections from quintet to nonett under the artistically guide of the famous concert-master Kathrin Rabus - musically partner by example of Gideon Kremer or Andras Schiff and violinplayer in the Kandinsky Streichtrio. Some of the musicians also are members of other wellknown chambermusic groups like the Ma`alot Bläserquintett or Klavierduo "Reine Elisabeth" (Wolfgang Manz - Rolf Plagge). The Arte Ensemble is a very welcome guest in the big concert-halls and festivals and refers to a lot of recordings of german broadcast transmitters like NDR Hamburg, BR München, HR Frankfurt and Deutschland Radio Berlin. The Arte Ensemble has published two CDs in co-operation with NDR and the labels CPO and NOMOS. Special attention by the press and the audience was given to the songs after compositions of Giuseppe Verdi: Verdiana - Composizioni da camera.

Grand Piano Masters · Comme un jeux d'eau

Esteemed friends of audiophile music, the concert grand piano is incontestably the king of instruments. I could now wax lyrical about its incomparable dynamics and go into its ability to go from the tenderest of sounds in a soft minor key to the magnificent power of a fortissimo, or I could rhapsodise about its impressive size and elegance. But what makes this instrument really fascinating is its individuality, since each one is unique in itself - created by a master. A concert grand has a life all of its own that a virtuoso can really "get into" and hence bring the work of the composer to life. In our "Grand Piano Masters" series, we get into the character and soul of the concert grand piano and experience, during the performance itself, the dialogue between the instrument, the virtuoso and the performance space.
On this disc you hear the first live-recording of a piano recital with the exceptional artist Magdalena Müllerperth.

Josef-Stefan Kindler, K&K Verlagsanstalt

The Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

From Leipzig to Bethlehem: The Mass in B Minor BWV 232 is best thought of as an anthology, a collection of his "best" sacred music that Bach assembled in the last years of his life. During the 1730s and 1740s, Bach put together several such kunstbücher (literally, books of art); the most widely known are The Art of Fugue, the four volumes of the Clavier Übung, and the 17 Chorales of Different Kinds. Some of these anthologies Bach either published or intended to publish; others, like the Mass, he did not. These less "commercial" distillations he left to his heirs, physical and spiritual, to preserve and disseminate to those who were interested. With the exception of the opening four measures of the first "Kyrie", it seems that every movement of the Mass is a reworking of an existing vocal composition, either sacred or secular. At least one such movement, the "Crucifixus", dates to the Weimar years. The "Kyrie" and "Gloria" were put together in 1733, as a presentation piece to the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, from whom Bach sought, ultimately successfully, the professionally and socially invaluable position of Court Composer. The "Sanctus" is a careful and subtle revision of the setting of the text that he wrote for performance in Leipzig on Christmas Day, 1723. The "Symbolum Nicenum" [the "Credo" section], and the concluding movements of the Mass were added in the late 1740s, when both Bach's eyesight and his health were failing. The "Kyrie", the "Gloria", and the "Symbolum Nicenum" are all in five voices; the texture expands to six voices in the "Sanctus" and eight in the "Osanna". As Joshua Rifkin's controversial, but as yet unrefuted, findings have demonstrated convincingly, the Mass in B Minor, like almost all of Bach concerted vocal music in fact, was meant to be sung by one singer to each line, even in the "choruses". The principle is a simple one: Each performer got his own part, no matter how big or how small his rôle, and he shared that part with no one else. The complement of five "soloists" has caused numerous problems over the years. Who, for instance, sings the "Laudamus te", which is assigned to the second soprano, in a performance for which only one soprano soloist has been engaged? The soprano or the alto? Elly Ameling once remarked in a radio interview that it was the soloist who made the mistake of looking at the conductor first when the aria came up at rehearsal. Many conductors, however, assign the two bass solos to different soloists, when Bach calls only for one bass; the reason is simple: The "Quoniam" lies lower in the main than the "Et in spiritum sanctum". While assembling the second half of the Mass some ten to fifteen years after he delivered the parts of the "Kyrie" and "Gloria" to the Court in Dresden, Bach was not concerned about making the compass of the two arias comport comfortably with one another. Although many, if not all, of the components could have been, and were, performed as parts of the various Leipzig church services for which Bach provided the music, he gave no complete performance of the B Minor Mass, nor, apparently, did he ever intend to put one on. It is, therefore, supremely ironic that this, Bach's own distillation of his "greatest" vocal music, apparently did not receive its first complete performance until more than 100 years after his death. There was, however, great interest in the work among the cognoscenti in the decades after Bach's death as well as in the years after the onset of the general revival of interest in his music that was spawned by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's seminal performance of the St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 with the Berlin Singakademie in 1829. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach put on a performance of the "Symbolum Nicenum" in Hamburg in 1784, preceding it with a short instrumental introduction of his own composition. (For this performance, as a guide to his copyists, Philipp Emanuel "touched up" the orchestration a bit on his father's autograph score, which also has sustained some water damage, and his editorial changes went unnoticed until nearly ten years ago. As it happens, therefore, a copy made by Philipp Emanuel's pupil, Schwenke, provides a more accurate text than the autograph itself.) Haydn owned a copy of the Mass. Beethoven unsuccessfully sought to obtain one. Spontini put on a performance of the "Symbolum Nicenum", through the "Et resurrexit", in Berlin in 1828, with 92 in the chorus, 56 strings, clarinets, horns, and bassoons, but no trumpets or oboes. Under the direction of Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen, the Berlin Singakademie gave the "Kyrie" and "Gloria" in 1834, and the balance of the work the following year. Portions of the Mass were performed at the Birmingham Festival as early as 1837, and the Mass was among the works regularly performed by the London Bach Choir, which was founded in 1876. The first complete performance of the B Minor Mass in the USA was given in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, by The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, under the direction of its founder, Dr. J. Fred Wolle, in 1900. This first public presentation of the Mass in America inaugurated an annual series of festival performances of the work that continues in Bethlehem to this day. For three decades, from 1939 -- seven years after Dr. Wolle's death -- until 1969, The Bach Choir was directed by the distinguished Welsh choral conductor, Ifor Jones. His forthright, Romantic reading of the score -- chockerblock full of rubatos and ritards -- was recorded in 1960 [22]. Even though it is clearly his own interpretative handiwork, Jones's performance preserves many of the interpretive traditions and conventions that had been established by Dr. Wolle in his 32 years at the helm of the Choir, traditions and interpretative quirks that have been almost completely expunged, alas, in recent years. The first "Kyrie", for instance, is preceded by a Moravian chorale. Intoned softly off stagby a brass choir, the hymn setting gives the pitch to the chorus, which comes in, forte, on the chorale's final chord. Un-Bachian though it may be, the effect is undeniably overwhelming. A very large but exceptionally well trained amateur chorus -- more than 175 singers -- is balanced against a smallish orchestra made up largely of members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, including such distinguished instrumentalists as hornist Mason Jones and oboist John DeLancie. The vocal soloists are average; only the golden trumpet of soprano Lois Marshall stands out. In better voice than she was three years earlier when she sang the soprano part for Eugen Jochum, she is assigned the "Laudamus te" in addition to the music normally given to the first soprano. This important documentation of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem's approach to the Mass before it was diluted by a much more recent director's preference for "authenticity" rather than local tradition is also a satisfying reading, one that will prove particularly appealing to those who like Bach played "with the heart on the sleeve" as the old saying goes.

By Teri Noel Towe (December 2001)
Copyright © by Bach Cantatas Website. Contributed by Teri Noel Towe (December 2001). Written by Teri Noel Towe, and originally printed in "Choral Music on Record", edited by Alan Blyth (Cambridge University Press, first published 1991). The copyrights in this article belong to the Cambridge University Press.

This live recording of Bach's Mass in B Minor is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 415 Hz).

C

hristoph Graupner (13 January 1683 in Kirchberg - 10 May 1760 in Darmstadt) was a German harpsichordist and composer of high Baroque music who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel. Born in Hartmannsdorf near Kirchberg in Saxony, Graupner received his first musical instruction from his uncle, an organist named Nicolaus Kuester. Graupner went to the University of Leipzig where he studied law (as did many composers of the time) and then completed his musical studies with Johann Kuhnau, the cantor of the Thomasschule (St. Thomas School). In 1705 Graupner left Leipzig to play the harpsichord in the orchestra of the Hamburg Opera under the direction of Reinhard Keiser, alongside George Frideric Handel, then a young violinist. In addition to playing the harpsichord, Graupner composed six operas in Hamburg, some of them in collaboration with Keiser, a popular composer of operas in Germany. In 1709 Graupner accepted a post at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt and in 1711 became the court orchestra's Hofkapellmeister (court chapel master). Graupner spent the rest of his career at the court in Hesse-Darmstadt, where his primary responsibilities were to provide music for the court chapel. He wrote music for nearly half a century, from 1709 to 1754, when he became blind. He died six years later... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

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f Georg Philipp Telemann's surviving concertos, his Viola Concerto in G major, TWV 51:G9 is among his most famous, and still regularly performed today. It is the first known concerto for viola and was written circa 1716–1721. It consists of four movements:
Largo: A mellow movement with long notes. Written in 3/2, with many dotted quarter and eighth note slurs, and is in the key of G. Usually is played with vibrato. Some performers choose to add significant ornamentation to this very simple movement.
Allegro: Most played movement. Written in 4/4 and in the key of G. The melody begins with a distinctive syncopated figure which is also used independently later in the movement.
Andante: A slow, mellow movement in the relative minor and largely on the upper strings of the instrument.
Presto: A fast, exciting movement in the tonic key.
The fast movements contain very few slurs, and many performers' editions include slurring suggestions, often indistinguishable from markings contained in the original. The performer is encouraged to invent a varied pattern of slurs which fits the shape of each phrase.
The slow movements both give the option of a cadenza.
A typical performance lasts about 14 minutes.

From Wikipedia, the free rncyclopedia

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riedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Benda (15 July 1745 in Potsdam - 19 June 1814 in Potsdam) was a German violinist, pianist and composer. Benda was the son of violin virtuoso and composer Franz Benda, from whom he received his first musical lessons. Later he studied music theory and composition with Johann Kirnberger in Berlin. In addition to his compositional achievements, he was an accomplished pianist and violinist. In the years 1765–1810, Benda was a chamber musician at the Prussian Court in Potsdam where his compositions found much acceptance. Benda composed concertos, operas, and chamber Music... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

C

hristoph Graupner (13 January 1683 in Kirchberg - 10 May 1760 in Darmstadt) was a German harpsichordist and composer of high Baroque music who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and George Frideric Handel. Born in Hartmannsdorf near Kirchberg in Saxony, Graupner received his first musical instruction from his uncle, an organist named Nicolaus Kuester. Graupner went to the University of Leipzig where he studied law (as did many composers of the time) and then completed his musical studies with Johann Kuhnau, the cantor of the Thomasschule (St. Thomas School). In 1705 Graupner left Leipzig to play the harpsichord in the orchestra of the Hamburg Opera under the direction of Reinhard Keiser, alongside George Frideric Handel, then a young violinist. In addition to playing the harpsichord, Graupner composed six operas in Hamburg, some of them in collaboration with Keiser, a popular composer of operas in Germany. In 1709 Graupner accepted a post at the court of Hesse-Darmstadt and in 1711 became the court orchestra's Hofkapellmeister (court chapel master). Graupner spent the rest of his career at the court in Hesse-Darmstadt, where his primary responsibilities were to provide music for the court chapel. He wrote music for nearly half a century, from 1709 to 1754, when he became blind. He died six years later... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Joshua by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

Of Handel's late oratorios, Joshua was one of the most successful. Of the operas composed after Samson, only Judas Maccabaeus was performed more frequently during the composer's lifetime, and the latter's popularity was mainly due to the fact that, after the first series of performances, "See the conqu'ring hero comes", originally written for Joshua, was included in it. Handel started to work on Joshua on 19 July 1747, only two weeks after he had finished writing the Alexander Balus oratorio. Eleven days later, the first act was already on paper. The second act was completed in an even shorter time - by 8 August - and the entire opus was finished by 19 August. The world première took place in Covent Garden on 9 March 1748. Joshua was one of four oratorios written in quick succession between 1746 and 1748 that all have strong military traits. In 1847, Judas Maccabaeus followed, a work that was extremely popular inasmuch as it was performed at least 33 times during the composer's lifetime. It appears clear that, after Judas Maccabaeus, Handel and his librettist, Thomas Morell, were at pains to repeat the successful recipe of a Jewish hero and triumphant choruses, but this time adding the romantic subplot that Judas lacked. Morell had hardly recovered from the exertions of Alexander Balus before he was already tackling the new libretto, based on a bloodthirsty account in the Book of Joshua in the Old Testament. He turned the campaigns against Jericho, Ai and the five kings into one dramatic block and extended the roles of Othniel and Achsa to create the background needed to provide romantic relief and to contrast the otherwise almost completely warlike plot. The unusual tempo of Handel's composition must have challenged Morell to the extreme and the result was more a sequence of events than a fully developed plot. But the characters are strong - Joshua an imperious/domineering (if also a sometimes unbearably conceited) hero, Kaleb the suitably patriarchal leader type, shortly before retirement and on the verge of leaving the battlefield forever, his daughter, Achsa, worried, occasionally disapproving and engaged to Othniel, who finds it difficult to strike the right balance between the role of the young warrior that has been thrust upon him and that of the devoted lover. Over and above all this, there is a small but important role for an angel. A later score gives this part to a tenor, but it is generally assumed that, as is to be expected, the angel was played by a female or boy soprano in earlier performances. As is the case with many of Handel's oratorios, the later performances underwent numerous rearrangements of the original score and for reasons that sometimes had little to do with music. The present version keeps to the score used in the 1748 performances, with the one concession that Handel's undated change to the second half of "Hark! 'tis the linnet" (1752?) is included. This is the only change made later that did not affect the original sequence of the movements. Handel had surprisingly few boy voices at his disposal to sing the upper parts of his choruses. However, as voices generally broke very much later in those days, we can assume that there were some excellent singers among them. Handel's soloists usually joined in the 'Tutti' parts (which most certainly must have put a huge strain on them during performances). Our 21st century choir has no need of such support. At three points in the score, Handel notes that the brasses ought to be brought in and there is a short rhythmic entry at each of these points, on the basis of which the musicians of the time (led by the first trumpet) then had to improvise the necessary music. Handel's lavish casting of the oratorio points to the fact that his performances were financially secured. The large orchestra comprises - apart from the usual strings, oboes and bassoons - two flutes, trumpets, horns and timpani, respectively. Moreover, certain 18th century reports on performances gave us the idea of including cembalo, organ and archlute as continuo instruments. The most stunning passages of Handel's Joshua make full use of brass and timbali, and the resulting music is very impressive. Dramatic events like the collapse of the walls of Jericho, the destruction of the city by fire, Joshua's ability to stop the sun and moon in their tracks and to rouse an army of demoralized soldiers to action, not to mention the return of the hero in triumph from the battle offer heroic material that would have inspired any composer. It might therefore come as no surprise that the fall of Jericho in Act II led Handel to use one of his wonderful 'thunder choruses' that incidentally also greatly impressed Hadyn when he heard it during a lavish performance at Westminster Abbey in 1791. Supposedly, he was familiar with the music, but was only half aware of its effect until he actually got to hear it. In any case, Hadyn was convinced that only a genius like Handel could ever have written such an outstanding composition or could indeed write one like it at any point in the future. The solemn march around the Ark of the Covenant, which hastens the destruction along, is also one of Handel's most beautiful compositions, and its amazing solemnity is impressive, while Kaleb's aria that follows it, "See the raging flames arise" turns out to be wonderfully dramatic. Othniel's "Place danger around me" is an equally outstanding Handel aria. Joshua was also the original source for the chorus "See the conqu'ring hero comes" that was only put into Judas Maccabaeus when its potential as a crowd-puller was recognized after the first performances of Joshua. At the same time, the quieter, more contemplative moments also deserve a mention: Kaleb's resigned aria "Shall I in Mamre's fertile plain", the heavenly chorus that follows it and the chorus of the vanquished Israelites, "How soon our tow'ring hopes are crossed as well as Othniel's "Nations who in future story" are all examples of Handel's best lyrical style. And between the triumphs and catastrophes of the battle, the scenes with Achsa offer additional contrast, with arias ranging from the pensive "Oh, who can tell" to the bird calls in "Hark! 'tis the linnet" and the joyful, ever-popular "Oh had I Jubal's lyre".
This live recording of "Joshua" is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 430 Hz).

Music for men's voices by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Within Schubert's vocal works, his approximately 130 works for polyphonic singing occupy a very significant place. The cast could not be more varied: female, male or mixed voices sing in duet, trio, quartet, quintet, double quartet, choir, sometimes accompanied by piano or other instruments, in many cases also a cappella. Formally there is also a rich abundance to be observed, ranging from the canon to simple strophic songs to through-composed songs and extended cantata-like formations. With this concert, titled "Goldner Schein deckt den Hain" (Golden sparkle covers the grove), a program of literary sensibility can be heard here. The focus is on male ensembles and songs based on poems by Friedrich von Matthisson, who - praised by Schiller for the musical beauty of his verses - invokes in his poems love, friendship and especially nature as poetic ideals. Thus, the content of the content ranges from the spirit of love to the enjoyment of nature, concludes with Op. 17 is one of Schubert's two a cappella cycles and approaches death as a central theme of the Viennese composer - admittedly in typical Schubertian transfiguration and beauty.

Musica Sacra · Buddhist Shõmyõ & Gregorian Chants
A dialogue of two spiritual cultures based on the musical repertoire
of the Buddhist and the Christian tradition

Meaningful dialogue between religions is no doubt one of the most pressing challenges of the modern world. Developments over the past few years clearly confirm what a significant role this aspect of human communication represents. Despite breathtaking technological breakthroughs and the related trend of rational scepticism, man still remains a religious creature. Ignoring this sphere of human personality not only leads to an impoverishment of the spiritual culture of a nation, but also to mutual estrangement of nations. And so what a wonderfully enriching experience it is then two cultures meet in mutual dialogue rather than confrontation. As a biblical quotation has it, Spiritus flatubivult - the Spirit blows wherever it pleases. These words suggest an image of the unbound "blowing of God's spirit" traversing all religious traditions. It is precisely by seeking this spirit that we can liberate ourselves from long established differences and share the common "message" of religions. Many would agree that music plays an important role in such communication, crossing barriers and working as a kind of universal language. The intention of the Tendai monks and the Schola Gregoriana Pragensis ensemble was to create a dialogue of two spiritual cultures based on the musical repertoire of the Buddhist and the Christian tradition. Thus, this recording is the fruit of mutual collaboration at concerts and liturgy in Prague in 2000 and a tour of Japan in 2005. These meditative encounters focus on interesting contrasts in the two musical languages and expressions, at the same time seeking common elements present in both traditions. Parallels can be found, for example, in the recitation of the sacred text or in the interpretation principle of alternating a soloist with a choir, which overlaps the boundaries of confession repertoires. Another striking feature is the tonality based on the pentatonic scale appearing both in shomyo singing and Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant is the earliest liturgical singing of the western Christian tradition. Its roots reach back to the first centuries of the Christianera. The core of this sacral repertoire was established in about the second half of the 8th century under the reign of Charles the Great. Homophony and Latin texts are typical features of this style. Most prominent in the Gregorian chant is the singing of psalms, sometimes conceived in a simple recitation (as in the psalm Misere mei Deus and the antiphon Alieni insurrexerunt) and in others (such as the tractus Deus, Deus meus) in a richer melodic shape. While the core of the repertoire has remained more or less unchanged since the early Middle Ages, liturgical singing is still a dynamic phenomenon, having incorporated new musical forms and accepting even polyphonic compositions. Gregorian chants on this recording draw predominantly from the earliest part of the repertoire (around the second half of the 8th century), as it seems to resonate best with the meditative feeling of shomyo singing. To create contrast, several examples of late medieval music including a polyphonic composition (the conductus Mundus a munditia) have been selected for the recording. There are also two songs of Czech origin. The procession antiphon Sedit angelus from the Easter Vigil has survived in Bohemia in an accompaniment of an interesting two voice verse. Ave virgo gloriosa also represents the repertoire of Czech sacred songs (cantiones) of the late Middle Ages. It is complemented interestingly on this recording by the "hum" of the recited Lotos sutra.

The concert "Bassiona Amorosa · Music for Double Bass Ensemble"

As an International Contrabass Ensemble, they know how to excite and engage the audience in Europe and America in concerts, on CDs, on the radio, and on TV with never expected, varied, interesting programs, which include music from the early renaissance, baroque and classical period to arrangements of light music, and have done so since their foundation in 1996. The reason for this special attraction is the incredible sound refinement and the unusual virtuoso performance. The sense of this "special touch" bring these exceptional artists along from their home countries Slovakia, Russia, Czech Republic, White Russia, Yugoslavia, Georgia and Ukraine. The formation consists of Master Class students of Prof. Trumpf, the leader of the Ensemble, at the State Conservatory of Music in Munich. Carthy musicianship, Slav melancholy with classical education - now formed through the same school - merge in unique symbiosis. Unbroken temperament and charm fascinate the audience. In its fourteen-years history, Bassiona Amorosa performed in nearly 500 concerts; seven CDs have been published so far; the ensemble was subject of three short films shot by the Bavarian Television Station and the WDR (West German Broadcasting Company). The third USA tour in June 2003 received a sensational reception by the audience. In Lucerne in September 2003, Bassiona Amorosa received from the European Culture Foundation Pro Europa the "European Quartet Prize 2003".

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his String Quartet was the second of three of his "Razumovsky" cycle of string quartets, and is a product of his "middle" period. He published it in 1808. It is in four movements: I. Allegro - II. Molto adagio (Si tratta questo pezzo con molto di sentimento) - III. Allegretto (with the second section marked Maggiore - Theme russe) - IV. Finale. Presto. According to Carl Czerny, the second movement of the quartet occurred to Beethoven as he contemplated the starry sky and thought of the music of the spheres (Thayer, Life of Beethoven); it has a hymnlike quality reminiscent of a much later devotion, the "Heiliger Dankgesang" hymn to the Divine in the Quartet Op. 132. The scherzo movement of the quartet, the third movement (allegretto), uses a Russian theme also used by Modest Mussorgsky in Boris Godunov, by Anton Arensky in his String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, and by Sergei Rachmaninoff in his 6 Morceaux for Piano Duet, Op. 11. The original song, "Glory to the Sun", was recorded by Nikolay Lvov and Jan Prac; sheet music was published in 1790 (second edition 1806), verses in the 1770s. However, Beethoven used it in an ungentle way. According to Kerman, "It sounds as though Count Razumovsky had been tactless enough to hand Beethoven the tune, and Beethoven is pile-driving it into the ground by way of revenge." In an extremely unusual example of melodic setting prior to the 20th century, portions of the tune with strong tonic harmonic leanings are harmonized with the dominant, and vice versa; the harmonic clash is harsh, and many listeners have found this portion of the quartet to be quite amusing, especially as contrasted with the prosaic, almost "exercise-book" counterpoint which precedes it (another example of Beethoven parodying a student counterpoint exercise can be found in the scherzo of the Quartet No. 10, opus 74). (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Der Messias, K. 572 · The reorchestration of Handel's Messiah by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

The idea of writing an arrangement of Handel's Messiah was not Mozart's. He was in fact commissioned to do this by Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Van Swieten had founded the "Society of Associates" (Gesellschaft der Associierten) in Vienna, an exclusive circle that organised private performances of oratorios during Lent and at Christmas. Because of the reforms introduced by Emperor Joseph II, church music had suffered from drastic changes to the liturgy that had almost brought about its total demise. For this reason, the emphasis shifted to private performances. The Viennese aristocracy was part of van Swieten's circle and its members also acted as patrons. For quite some time before he worked on the Messiah, Mozart been part of these concerts - he played cembalo under the direction of the court theatre composer, Starzer, who had already arranged Judas Maccabaeus. During this period, Mozart had access to van Swieten's private library and was able to study scores by Bach and Handel, which he found deeply stimulating for his own creative work. In 1788 Mozart himself took over as director of these private concerts. In that same year he arranged Handel's Acis and Galatea, then in March 1979 the Messiah, and in the following year, the Ode for St. Cecilia and Alexander's Feast. The rehearsals for the Messiah took place in van Swieten's apartments. The oratorio was first performed in Count Johann Esterhazy's palais on 6th March 1789. The number of instrumentalists involved is not known, and there were supposedly only 12 singers in the choir. Baron van Swieten, who was a great admirer of baroque music, wanted Mozart to "modernise" the oratorio. This was a perfectly normal demand - the original work and its composer still commanded great respect, of course, but this was no obstacle to updating something "old-fashioned" to bring it into line with modern taste. Mozart based his arrangement on the first edition of Handel's score. From this, two copyists produced a working score. For the English libretto and the wind sections of the original, they substituted blank lines so that Mozart could write his own accompaniment and insert the text written by van Swieten. The latter was, in turn, based on the German translation done by F. G. Klopstock and C. D. Ebeling in 1775. The biggest change was made to the airs, as they were believed to be the form most in need of "modernisation". Mozart in part changed the harmony structure, made cuts, varied the tempi, transposed the airs or assigned them to other vocal parts. Yet he retained the form of the air - with one exception. "If God be for us" appears in Mozart's version as a recitative, not as an air. Van Swieten comments: "Your idea of turning the text of the cold air into a recitative is splendid... Anyone who is able to clothe Handel with such solemnity and taste that he pleases the fashion-conscious fops on the one hand, while on the other hand still continuing to show himself superior, is a person who senses Handel's worth, who understands him, has found the source of his expression and who can and will draw inspiration from it. The mood of this "cold air" obviously had so little appeal for Mozart that he felt this was the one instance where he had to alter the formal structure, which in itself speaks volumes for his sensitivity in dealing with the original. The choral sections remain almost unchanged. But here, however, Mozart introduces harmony. Woodwinds are added to the horn and trumpet sections and accompany the choral descant parts in unison. The trombones, on the other hand, are given the option of doubling the alto, tenor and base parts and precise stipulations are only made for two of the numbers. Before this version of the Messiah score first appeared in print, Rochlitz made the flowing comments in the music periodical, "Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung": "He has exercised the greatest delicacy by touching nothing that transcends the style of his time ... The choral sections are left as Handel wrote them and are only amplified cautiously now and again by wind instruments." One other change was made to the choral sections and it had to do with tempo. Mozart intervenes here, usually choosing a slower pace. In addition to slowing the movements down, he also "steals" some pieces from the choir. This applies in particular to certain virtuoso segments in the initial choral sections, which he gives to the soloists. Apart from the explanation that Mozart was doing this to illustrate baroque dynamics, this might also have been done for other reasons. It is quite possible that Mozart had no choir available whom he thought capable of performing these pieces. The airs were also shortened. For example, he cut the middle section of the bass air, "The trumpet shall sound". Of this Rochlitz wrote: "Those [airs], where Handel adhered more strictly to the conventions of his day, have been given a new and unparalleled accompaniment, one that Handel himself would have wanted, but which also incorporates the advances in instruments and taste made since his days; where the airs were too long or became unimportant, like the second part, for example, which was only written for voice and bass, such parts have been cut." Yet in comparison to other contemporary oratorio arrangements, Mozart's cuts are minimal. They are aimed more at condensing and tightening up what is taking place. As a result, a performance of this arrangement only takes 2 ½ hours, a cut of almost half an hour. Rochlitz is of the opinion that this makes the oratorio "highly enjoyable for any kind of audience." However, Mozart is not content with changes that are dull or conventional. He puts woodwinds into the airs to better interpret the basic mood. What's more, he divests the bassoons of their bass function - repeatedly. To preserve the musical flow of an air, he provides the singer with instrumental support in cadences instead of giving him or her the freedom to improvise. And over and above having to adhere to the rules imposed by the contemporary conventions of good taste, Mozart also had to take other circumstances into consideration. For example, in his arrangement he cut out the organ - there was simply no organ available in the Viennese palais where the private performances were held. Another problem that Mozart had to contend with was the change that had taken place in trumpet playing between the time of Handel's Messiah and Mozart's arrangement of it. The break-up of the social order in the towns had led to the demise of the town piper guilds and, in turn, to the decline in the art of playing the clarion. The trumpets in a classical orchestra were not nearly as powerful as their predecessors, so in order to support the sound of the orchestra, Mozart "downgraded" them with regard to both harmony and rhythm. He modified the original passages or assigned them to other instruments such as the horn in the air "The trumpet shall sound", thus achieving a more virtuoso effect. Yet the Messiah remains the work of Handel, despite the Mozart arrangement. Mozart did not write a new composition, he used the original as a template and arranged it – or to use a present-day idiom, he did a "cover version". In doing so, he achieved a synthesis of baroque counterpoint and classical style, which is why this version of the Messiah definitely offers a remarkable alternative to the "original". (Teresa Frick)
This live recording of "Der Messias" is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 430 Hz).

The Bassoon Sonata in G Major, Op. 168, by Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)

The bassoon is often considered the clown of the orchestra but in his Sonata for Bassoon and Piano Saint-Saëns explores the elegant and dignified nature of the instrument. He began composing at the age of three and completed approximately three hundred works. Other French composers such as Poulenc and Ravel were said to have been inspired by Saint-Saëns, and Poulenc is even alleged to have borrowed musical ideas from him! The woodwind sonatas belong to his later works and were each dedicated to highly regarded players of the era. The Sonata for Bassoon is dedicated to his friend, Leon Letellier, and who was also the principal bassoonist of the Paris Opera orchestra. The piece begins in the high tenor register and emerges from, what seems like nothing - as if the melody had been hanging in the air just waiting to be heard before unfolding to become an elated melody. The second movement is a virtuosic scherzo which exemplifies the typically humorous character of the bassoon. The third movement begins once again with a floating melody that evolves into an impassioned middle section characterized by rhythmic passagework before the reprise disperses the tension eventually ending on an imperfect cadence which leads directly into the juxtaposed circus like finale.

The Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, FP 43, by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

In 1920 Francis Poulenc was counted amongst the "Groupe des Six" which included the composers Darius Milhaud, Arthur Honegger, Louis Durey, Jean Cocteau, Germaine Tailleferre and Georges Auric. Technically speaking this was not a Society but rather the creation of a music journalist who simply used these representatives of Modernism as an analogy to "The Mighty Handful", the group of five Russian Composers including Mussorgsky and Balakirev in the second part of the 19th Century. The Trio was composed in 1926 and is dedicated to the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla. It is written in the typical quick - slow - quick form and is considered to be amongst Poulenc's finest works. It is also the first instance of Poulenc giving a more dominant role to the piano within his chamber music writing.

The choral concert "Human being lives and consists · Birth ~ Finiteness ~ Eternity"

It must have been at the turn of the new century when I had a conversation with Jürgen Budday in the cloister of the Maulbronn monastery and talked of how superb the church was as a performing space and how its atmosphere might be put to use. By expanding the dimensions of the performance and incorporating the audience into the tension, the euphoria of the concert, without a single instrument - with the pure power of those human gifts that we receive from our Creator at the moment of birth. But you know, of the many demands that a project like this makes of those involved, I want to single out just one - the human factor, plain and simple. When a group of people work together, it takes time to develop a certain intimacy, to acquire experience of working as a team – simply to establish respect and friendship. For, after more than ten productions, we have come to know "our Chamber Choir" very well, to realize what high demands the choir director and the singers make of themselves. All of them have worked hard for this live recording, on the concept as well as the music, just to capture the moment, to give you pleasure - and this over and above the daily demands of their private and professional lives. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated and leave it to the director to explain the content and concept of the programme in the section that follows. (Josef-Stefan Kindler, Publisher)
In this collection entitled "Der Mensch lebt und bestehet" (Human being lives and consists), the Maulbronn Chamber Choir presents compositions that are interconnected in themselves and in content, in that they regard birth as more than just a joyful event. It is an act of creation, in which the divine and the human find each other and which implies earthly finiteness, but at the same time transcends this and leads back to its divine beginnings. This is how the prophetic words of the Old Testament are taken up, words that are substantiated in the annunciation to Mary of the incarnation of Christ ("Angelus Domini - Ave Maria") and that lead into the events of Christmas ("Gloria" and "O magnum mysterium"). Yet at the same time, their central theme is the union of man with divine reality by means of reformation and contemplation (the "unio mystica"). Each life has a goal that transcends earthly finiteness, leading to what Reger calls that "hellen, schönen, lichten Tag, an dem er/sie selig werden mag" (that bright, beautiful, clear day when he or she blessed be).
"A Hymn to the Virgin" by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), a composition for two choirs, is presented in a very similar vein. The text dates from about 1300 and praises Mary as a lovely, radiant, adorable maiden carrying the Son of God in her womb. Britten has set it to music that is basically archaic in mood and melody. The first choir sings the text in English and the second interpolates and comments on it in Latin.
The motet "O magnum mysterium" is the work by Morten Lauridsen (born 1943), an American composer of Danish origin. It speaks of the wonder of the birth of Jesus. Here, too, the &"unio mystica" is the theme of this composition, the union with the Divine through redemption and ecstatic contemplation.
Jan Sandström (born 1954) dedicates his "Gloria" to "la Casa de la Madre y el Niño" in Bogotá. The idea behind the composition came to Sandström in a dream, which he describes as follows: "In a church on a mountain high above Bogotá, a children's choir sings the Gloria over and over again, during which first one child, then another and another steps forward to interject 'Gloria in excelsis'." Sandström has incorporated this pattern of fast switches from choir to a single chorister into his composition - vibrant rhythm, detailed and delightful harmony combined with a sound that envelopes the listener from all sides, making listening a real experience.
This programme is exceptional in that it includes choral works written for more than one choir. The effect of these compositions is heightened appreciably by positioning the various performers in different areas of the church, and they were, in fact, originally composed with this in mind. In the Biebl and Britten motets, we therefore experience a separate smaller choir singing far up in the gallery of the monastery church. Even the soloists in Sandström's "Gloria" enhance the effect of the performing space by being positioned opposite the choir. The Reger motets also develop a unique sound of their own, due to mixed groupings of voices being placed extremely far apart throughout the entire area. In the Maulbronn Monastery church, the conditions are ideal for these innovate concepts of sound. (Jürgen Budday)

The concert "Glass & Stones · Concert for Glass Armonica & Verrophone"

They are built of natural stone, these noble halls of this world heritage site. A fascinating thought when you're standing under arches that are hundreds of years old. The stones seem to whisper - because, in the quiet of their existence, you seem to feel how they are imbued with all those voices and instruments that filled these walls with their sounds - violins, the sound of trumpets, the organ and singing' wood and metal. But in the end, isn't it the material of the body that makes the sound of an instrument? It was the sound of the glass armonica that inspired Mozart to write a minuet and, after hearing how his composition sounded on the glass harmonica, Arvo Pärt gave the Ensemble his one-time permission to perform "Pari Intervallo" with the "glass instrument". Even Gottfried Keller described the sound and effect of the instrument as "...then it began to play in the most ghostly tones I have ever heard...". Now, the glass armonica is made of glass - plain old glass - melted sand, nothing more. But this is also the same basic material as these world heritage walls are made of - natural sandstone... And during this concert by these Viennese artists, it was as if I could feel the walls vibrating and I thought I heard the very stones singing. (Josef-Stefan Kindler)
After 150 years of being forgotten, the glass armonica is now being built again, exactly like with the original instrument. It was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. The individual glass bowls (B flat - F) are attached to a rotating axis. For orientation purposes, some of the bowls are marked with gold stripes. These correspond to the black keys on a piano. The performer gently touches the rims of the rotating bowls with a damp finger, causing them to vibrate.
The verrophone (verre, French = glass) was invented by Sascha Reckert in 1983 and was based on the principle of musical glasses. Glass tubes are arranged according to size (usually on a chromatic scale) and attached at the vibration points. The length of the tube determines the pitch. Touching a damp finger to the rim makes the glass vibrate.

The concert "Awake, my Spirit"

Who would ever have thought it... in a highly appealing, even noble way, this Hamburg Ratsmusik performance encourages us to take a look at certain values that appear to be losing their merit more and more today due to the wide influence of our environment. Listening to this concert, it is touching and, indeed, perhaps even comforting for us to discover values like grace, humility and noble-mindedness, which in those days were as important as efficiency, effectiveness and achievement are today. For me personally, this is one of the most beautiful and appealing chamber music concerts in the entire Maulbronn Monastery series. (Josef-Stefan Kindler)
The "Hundert ahnmutig und sonderbar Geistliche Arien" (One hundred charming and especially religious airs), printed in Dresden in 1694, tell of the breath of God as symbolised by the winds Africus and Caurus and of "the silken soft West that leaves its kisses on the roses". This collection is an appendix to the Dresden Gesangbuch and appeared 18 years after the latter; its editor, the composer Christoph Bernhard, did not live to see it in print. The songs were not meant to be sung by the parish congregation - a delicate subject anyway during the tense times of Augustus the Strong's conversion to Catholicism. They were for the private Protestant religious services of the other members of the Royal Family. The melodies are more elaborate than those usual in other ecclesiastical music of the time, the bass parts are highly imaginative and the individual ritornellos are remarkable. There is another collection of 17th century songs that is dedicated to the same theme - Johann Rist's "Himlische Lieder" printed in Lüneburg in 1641/2 and set to music by Johann Schop, the Hamburg City "Rath" (or Council) musician. Both men were friends of Christoph Bernhard, who used his connections as a favourite pupil of Heinrich Schützen to arrange for them to meet the famous Kapellmeister on his journey up to Copenhagen.

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he Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor D. 845 (Op. 42) by Franz Schubert is a sonata for solo piano, composed in May 1825. The first movement was featured in the 2016 film "The Age of Shadows". The first movement is in sonata form though with ambiguity over the material in the development and the beginning of the recapitulation. The second movement is in C major (relative key to A minor) variation form, with somewhat frequent forays into the parallel minor, C minor. The third movement is a scherzo in compound ternary form, where the main scherzo is essentially in sonata form. The main scherzo opens in A minor and soon switches to the second theme in C major without a transition. The development goes through F minor, A-flat major and A-flat minor, finally arriving on an imperfect cadence in A minor. After the development comes the opening theme in A minor, soon followed by the second theme in A major (also in which the main scherzo ends). The calmer and slower trio section is in F major, the submediant major to A minor (also the subdominant of the relative key to A minor). No extra coda is present after the recapitulated main scherzo. The fourth movement, in A minor, begins with a melancholic but light melody. This movement is in sonata rondo form with foreshortened recapitulation. The secondary subject in the exposition goes from E minor to E major, while that in the recapitulation goes from A minor to A major. This movement finally closes in A minor... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Messiah by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

A vital aspect of Jürgen Budday's interpretation of George Frideric Handel's The Messiah, apart from matters of performance practice, is his focus on the work's dynamic conception. Dynamics are notated in the autograph manuscript, but Handel further annotated the Dublin score to mark the ripieno passages. By adding shifts in ensemble strength to the alternation of piano and forte, Handel evokes an ample measure of contrast and colour. Handel's dynamic indications in The Messiah go beyond the usual forte, piano and pianissimo to include mezzo piano and un poco piano, markings by which he intended an even finer differentiation. One would do well, when preparing a performance, to observe the ripieno indications in the Dublin score, as they are for the most part essential to Handel's dynamic conception. Examples in point include the arias Comfort ye (No. 2) and Ev'ry valley shall be exalted (No. 3); the choruses And the glory, the glory of the Lord (No. 4) and His yoke is easy, His burthen is light! (No. 18); as well as the beginning of the Hallelujah chorus (CD II, No. 16).
The Maulbronn interpretation takes this dynamic conception seriously and clearly differentiates solo and ripieno sections in the numbers just mentioned. This inevitably gives rise to novel and more subtle auditory impressions, for which the beginning of the Hallelujah chorus provides a clear example. Elsewhere, Handel's senza ripieno indications appear to have been motivated more by consideration of the technical inadequacies of his ripienisti, and therefore were not observed in the Maulbronn performance. The libretto and the music, each in itself and together as a whole, form a providential unity. The libretto, ascribed to Charles Jennens, is no mere compilation of Bible quotations, and Jennens made various changes to the wording of the selected text passages. In the course of successive performances, Handel composed variants of some of the arias to fit the immediate occasion or circumstances. For the Maulbronn performance, those variants were chosen that Handel himself is said to have preferred.
This live recording of Handel's The Messiah is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 415 Hz).

The concert: "Baroque in Blue · A Crossover between Early Music & Jazz"

"Amazing, these blues notes; for me, a subject that never ceases to fascinate, those small, dirty inconsistencies that give Swing its grooviness time and time again.. Recently, I thought that it would really sound very interesting if these hallmarks of jazz were actually played on historical instruments. What really surprised me, however, was discovering - in the course of comparing the baroque compositions of old maters - that these stylistic tools of the musical revolution of the 20th century were in fact quite usual back in Bach's day or at the court of the French King. I wish you a most pleasant evening with this concert." (Josef-Stefan Kindler)
Established in 1988 by Friedemann Immer, the Friedemann Immer Trumpet Consort dedicates itself to the music played by the trumpet ensembles of the Baroque age The Consort's programmes exude the wonderfully resplendent sound typical of the music of that time. All the members of the ensemble are specialists in old music and, accordingly, the trumpeters play baroque trumpets that have no valves. In doing so, they are treading in the footsteps of a profession that was highly regarded at a time when powdered wigs and buckled shoes were de rigueur. The trumpet players employed at the courts and in the towns, who provided the necessary musical accompaniment at coronations, weddings, tournaments and other festive occasions, banded together in guilds of their own that had extremely strict rules and regulations. The ensembles were made up of three to eight trumpeters and timpanists, supplemented by strings, woodwinds and continuo instruments. In its "normal" line-up, the Friedemann Immer Trumpet Consort is accompanied by timpani and organ - so that the magnificent sound of the trumpet stays firmly in the forefront of things. In some works, the organ takes over the string part - an arrangement that is totally in keeping with the practice of the times. The ensemble's repertoire encompasses all of Baroque music. The line-up is unusually large for a standing ensemble of Baroque trumpets and allows a lot of different options in the way of variations. So the Consort not only performs works for one to six trumpets with accompaniment, it also presents - along with outstanding song soloists - cantatas and arias with all the original parts being performed. In many a project, strings are also brought in. And, as what can be done musically and sound-wise on the Baroque trumpet differs quite considerably from anything that its present-day "daughter" with all its valves can do, the ensemble has also turned to interpreting modern works on the Baroque trumpet - and they are probably totally alone in this. The repertoire of the Trumpet Consort not only includes original works by Benjamin Britten, for instance, but quite a large range of jazz pieces as well. Since its formation, the ensemble has been giving concerts both at home and abroad. They have played at many different festivals, examples being the Arolsen Baroque Festival, the Styriarte in Graz and the Kokutopia Festival in Tokyo as well as the International Trumpet Guild Conference and the Historic Brass Symposium in the USA.

The concert: "Hosanna in excelsis · Music & Poetry in the Middle Ages"

"Play and pleasure are necessary to the sustenance of human life. However, all services useful to human sustenance must be regarded as permissible. Therefore, the services of menestrels, which are intended to provide cheer, are not a forbidden thing, provided that they are not in a state of sin, and they exercise moderation in their playing - namely that they use no hateful words and do not begin playing during work or at forbidden times. And those who support the menestrels are not committing sin! Rather, they deal justly when they give them for their services that which is their due." ("As stated above..." from: Summa II, quaestio 168, Article 3, Thomas Aquinas, c.1225-1274)
Texts and music from the spiritual world of the European Middle Ages form the subject matter of this programme, which the Les Menestrels Ensemble has put together specially for this performance held in the monastery church at Maulbronn. One is astonished by the abundant variety of language and subject matter on offer here. Yet perhaps even more astonishing is the widespread, cross-border dissemination of a body of religious and cultural thought that flourished outside church walls. In today's monotonous popular culture, shaped as it is by the dogma that what sells is what matters, cultural and human values no longer enjoy pride of place. Linguistic standardisation is pursued aggressively, and dialects, expressions and cultural resonances travel beyond regional borders in only the rarest of cases. In the song as cultivated in the Middle Ages, however, we find a linguistically multifaceted culture; one that is, in this sense, truly more European. Modern media have wrought little improvement. On the contrary, inquisitorial surveillance has found its match in the uniformity-enforcing filter of a profit-oriented business management "culture." The Church may well have imposed strict guidelines, as Klaus Walter describes in the notes below, but at least the themes that were the focus of artistic creation were those by which human beings are moved, and wit and subtlety challenged the human intellect. (Josef-Stefan Kindler)

The concert: "Musica Sacra · De Maria Virgine"

The Moscow State Academic Choir is one of the oldest and most famous of Russian choruses. The choir was founded in 1956 by the venerated conductor Vladislav Sokolov, a winner of the Glinka State Prize of the Russian Federation, and a People's Artist of the USSR. Already in 1957, the chorus took first prize at the 6th World Youth and Students Festival in Russia, and has maintained a high profile ever since. The chorus has toured regularly not only in Russia, but also in Western Europe and Asia. A great number of choral works by Russian composers were given their debut by the Moscow State Academic Choir, including Prokofiev's Ivan the Terrible and Kabalevsky's Requiem. Within its broad repertory is a large number of Russian spiritual and patriotic works, the great choral scenes from various Russian operas, and choral versions of Russian and other folk melodies. In 1988, the baton of the Moscow State Choir was passed to Andrey Kozhevnikov, who had been Sokolov's assistant since 1970. Kozhevnikov, a People's Artist of the Russian Federation, and winner of several international competitions, was trained at the Moscow State Choir School and then at the Moscow Conservatory - studying with S.Kazansky and A.Sveshnikov. Under Kozhevnikov's leadership, the Moscow State Choir has resurrected a number of early Russian works, including Degtyarev's patriotic oratorio, Minin and Pozharsky - the first such Russian work, written on the eve of the Patriotic War of 1812; it is among the works featured here at the Classical Archives.

The Piano Sonata No. 12 in F Major, K. 332 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

The Piano Sonata No. 12 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was written at the same time as the Piano Sonata, K. 330, and Piano Sonata, K. 331 ("Alla turca"), Mozart numbering them as a set from one to three. They were once believed to have been written in the late 1770s in Paris, but it is now thought more likely that they date from 1783, by which time Mozart had moved to Vienna. Some believe that Mozart wrote this and the other sonatas during a summer 1783 visit to Salzburg made for the purpose of introducing his wife, Constanze to his father, Leopold. All three sonatas were published in Vienna in 1784... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

The Piano Sonata No. 16 in A Minor, Op. 42, D. 845 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

The Piano Sonata No. 16 by Franz Schubert is a sonata for solo piano, composed in May 1825. The first movement was featured in the 2016 film "The Age of Shadows". The first movement is in sonata form though with ambiguity over the material in the development and the beginning of the recapitulation. The second movement is in C major (relative key to A minor) variation form, with somewhat frequent forays into the parallel minor, C minor. The third movement is a scherzo in compound ternary form, where the main scherzo is essentially in sonata form. The main scherzo opens in A minor and soon switches to the second theme in C major without a transition. The development goes through F minor, A-flat major and A-flat minor, finally arriving on an imperfect cadence in A minor. After the development comes the opening theme in A minor, soon followed by the second theme in A major (also in which the main scherzo ends). The calmer and slower trio section is in F major, the submediant major to A minor (also the subdominant of the relative key to A minor). No extra coda is present after the recapitulated main scherzo. The fourth movement, in A minor, begins with a melancholic but light melody. This movement is in sonata rondo form with foreshortened recapitulation. The secondary subject in the exposition goes from E minor to E major, while that in the recapitulation goes from A minor to A major. This movement finally closes in A minor... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Carnaval for Piano, Op. 9 "Little Scenes on Four Notes", by Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Carnaval, Op. 9, is a work by Robert Schumann for piano solo, written in 1834-1835, and subtitled "Scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes" (Little Scenes on Four Notes). It consists of 21 short pieces representing masked revelers at Carnival, a festival before Lent. Schumann gives musical expression to himself, his friends and colleagues, and characters from improvised Italian comedy (commedia dell'arte). He dedicated the work to the violinist Karol Lipinski. Carnaval had its origin in a set of variations on a "Sehnsuchtswalzer" by Franz Schubert, whose music Schumann had only discovered in 1827. The catalyst for writing the variations may have been a work for piano and orchestra by Schumann's close friend Ludwig Schuncke, a set of variations on the same Schubert theme. Schumann felt that Schuncke's heroic treatment was an inappropriate reflection of the tender nature of the Schubert piece, so he set out to approach his variations in a more intimate way, and worked on them in 1833 and 1834. The work was never completed, however, and Schuncke died in December 1834, but Schumann did re-use the opening 24 measures for the opening of Carnaval. Pianist Andreas Boyde has since reconstructed the original set of variations from Schumann's manuscript (published by Hofmeister Musikverlag), premiered this reconstruction in New York and recorded it for Athene Records... [From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]

Belshazzar by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

The oratorio, Belshazzar, devotes itself to the story of the Babylonian king, Belshazzar, as presented in the biblical story from the book of Daniel. Belshazzar commits sacrilege against the God of the Israelites, upon which a ghostly hand inscribes the mysterious text, the Menetekel, upon the wall of the court, predicting the downfall of the kingdom and the death of Belshazzar at the hands of the Persians. The prophecy is fulfilled that very same night. There are three versions of Belshazzar, dated 1745, 1751 and 1758. Handel composed the first between 23rd August and 23rd October, 1744. The exact dates are known from the correspondence Handel had with his librettist, Charles Jennens. Jennens had already penned the libretti to Saul and the Messiah. He was an enlightened theologian who didn't shy away from embellishing the biblical story to enhance the libretto's dramatic development. The debut performance took place on 27th March 1745 in the King's Theatre, Haymarket in London. But the work attracted few listeners, with even fewer being enthusiastic. A possible reason for this failure was the political message, from Handel unintended but nevertheless inferable, contained in the libretto. It could be seen as a manifesto against the ruling king of the time, George II, who, as a member of the House of Hanover, was not seen as the rightful monarch by many of the British. So it was that the conquering of the throne by Cyrus was seen as an allegory of a similar conquest in England by a member of the House of Stewart. Belshazzar was discontinued after only three performances and only years later, in 1751, after revisions from Handel, was it resumed. In addition to minor improvements, the changes included new arias, whereby others were cut and the role of Cyrus was song by a countertenor instead of a mezzo-soprano. It was far more successful than the original, and it is this second version (slightly shortened) that was used for this recording. It starts with the second scene of the première. Charles Jennens created an unbelievably dramatic libretto. He embroidered the biblical story of the Babylonian king, Balshazzar, with historical sources he found in Heredotus and Xenophon. In the oratorio, for example, the key figure of Nitocris is taken from Herodotus's histories apodexis. The oratorio has, even for Handel, extraordinary colour and vitality. The responsibility for the high drama of the piece rests mostly with the choir, which musically represents the three peoples. Babylon, the capital of Assyria, in the year 538 BC, is the scene of the action. The Euphrates flows through the city. It was diverted during the building of the city walls and a lake on the west side of the city was formed. The armies of Media and Persia, under the leadership of King Cyrus, are encamped before the walls.
The first act starts before the gates of Babylon. From the walls, the Babylonians mock Cyrus and his fatuous plans to take the city. Gobrias, a Babylonian who has defected to Cyrus after his son was murdered by Balshazzar, confirms the sturdiness of the city's fortifications. Cyrus consoles him and relates his dream where he has seen the Euphrates dried up. He then devises a plan whereby the river would be diverted to the lake outside the walls, allowing them to penetrate the city using the waterless riverbed. Gobrias supports the idea to venture the plan on the day of the feast to Sesach, when the Babylonians pay homage to their god of wine, Sesach, and it is their religious duty to become intoxicated. Cyrus rouses his army and prays to God for support. The ensuing chorale takes up this plea to God from the Persians. In Babylon, the prophet Daniel predicts, for the imprisoned people of the Jews, the impending downfall of the city and proclaims Cyrus their God-sent liberator. The Jewish people sing a joyful chorale about their imminent deliverance. The chorale's first solemn, homophonic section expresses their hope of rescue. In the fourth scene, Belshazzar opens the festival in honour of Sesach. The people revel and imbibe excessively. Nitocris pleads with her son to put a stop to the celebrations, but he orders the sacred chalice of the Jews to be brought from the temple to be used as a wine goblet. Nitocris and the Jews warn him of the consequences of this sacrilege. The Jewish people react with the announcement that Belshazzar will shortly feel the wrath of God for his actions. In this three-sectioned chorale, the emotions develop by slow degrees: at first, sadness and hurt, then, in the second and third sections respectively, the suppressed and finally the released anger can be perceived. Especially moving is the demand for remorse that the Jewish people express. It goes singly through all the voices, builds up and finally flows into a homophonic sounding realisation that the waiting apparently will be in vain. The chromatically descending line "and every step he takes on his devoted head precipitates the thunder down" symbolises this hope gradually being transformed into anger.
The second act starts with the Persians excitedly observing the diversion of the waters. "See from his post Euphrates flies…" with the soprano theme (coloratura) reflecting the flowing of the waters and the joyful excitement radiating out amongst the Persians as they watch the spectacle. This further prompts them to partake in a bizarre role-play, in which they contrive a dialogue between the incensed Babylonians (female choir) and the emboldened Persians (male choir). Then Cyrus gives the order to cross the riverbed and capture the city. The Persians intone a belligerent chorale. The feasting of the Babylonians is at its highpoint. Belshazzar is arrogantly blaspheming Jehova and, just as he is about to take the chalice to his mouth, there occurs what the Jews had warned him would happen. A ghostly hand inscribes on the wall the incomprehensible words "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin". Here, Handel realizes a musical treatment that is possibly is not close to any other operatic convention. The violins ascend unaccompanied in a chromatic line adagio e staccato, ma piano. Belshazzar is struck dumb with horror, solely able to utter an appalled sigh. The people of Babylon cry for help while Belshazzar still points fearfully at the mysterious script. Nobody can decipher the writings, and, at the suggestion of Nitocris, the prophet Daniel is summoned. He translates, from Handel composed as a suspenseful recitative accompagnato, the following: mene, it is the will of the God you dishonoured that the days of your reign be numbered; tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; upharsin, your kingdom will be divided and be given to the Medes and Persians. Nitocris beseeches Belshazzar to plead with Jehova for forgiveness, but he does not allow himself to be swayed, even now. Cyrus and Gobrias infiltrate the city and lay the foundation for the dethroning of Belshazzar.
The third act opens with Nitocris in her chambers receiving news of the conquest of the city. The Jews are joyfully celebrating and thank Jehova for his mercy. Convinced of his strength, the brazen Belshazzar confronts the invaders. He falls in battle, the orchestra executing a military march. Nitocris submits to the new ruler, Cyrus, who promises the Babylonians freedom also. He grants this to Nitocris as well, and even entreats her to accept him as son in Balshazzars stead. Daniel predicts for Cyrus that he will become the deliverer of the people of Israel and will rebuild the city and temple of Jerusalem. This, Cyrus commends to do.
This live recording of Handels Belshazzar is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 415 Hz).

The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross by Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

To meditate, ponder, and reflect: verbs such as these are becoming increasingly significant in a fast-moving society such as ours. One usually associates with 'meditation' a kind of celestial relaxation music with an accordingly notional incitation to self-discovery. But what happens when a great orchestral work by Haydn, created to animate reflection on "The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross", is heard in an authentic setting such as the 'Maulbronn Monastery'? 'Meditation' then takes on quite another meaning, one entirely in keeping with the purpose of the composition and its original occasion. For in 1785, Joseph Haydn was commissioned by a canon in Cadiz to write a kind of sacred instrumental music for Holy Week, a work illustrating the "seven last words of the Lord". The composer agreed and proceeded to compose "Sieben Sonaten mit einer Einleitung und am Schluß ein Erdbeben" (Seven Sonatas with an Introduction and an Earthquake at the End) for large orchestra, which was then performed, probably on Good Friday in 1786, in the subterranean Church of Santa Cueva. Some 15 years later, Haydn described how the performance took place: "In those days it was the custom during Lent each year to perform an oratorio in the main church in Cadiz. The following preparations contributed in no small way to enhancing its effect: The walls, windows and pillars of the church were draped in black, with but a single lamp hanging in the middle to shed light into the darkness. At noon all the doors were shut. Then the music began. After a suitable prelude, the bishop mounted the pulpit, pronounced one of the seven Words and made some appropriate observations. The bishop mounted and left the pulpit a second time, a third time, and so on, and at the end of each oration the orchestra would start up again. My composition had to fit this description."
Haydn resorted to a trick commonly employed in the 18th century: an instrumental composition would be written to follow the thread of an imagined text, dialogue, perhaps even an entire drama, whose contents the music would "speak". Music thus became a "narrative" art, the contents of which were accordingly quite concrete. The seven heads in the title illustration of the longplay album symbolise the engagement of the human mind with the sublime words and the present ongoing decay of those words.

Moses by Max Bruch (1838-1920)

The oratorio Moses holds special meaning in composer Max Bruch's body of work. He originally viewed it presumptuous to continue in the tradition of the major works by Händel and Mendelssohn. In a letter to the music writer Hermann Deiters he wrote in 1873: "Biblical subject matter is foreign to my nature; the old masters have made such formidable contributions in this area so that it is only possible for us to make independent and new accomplishments in conjunction with other subjects. It is no coincidence that every oratorio since Mendelssohn has been a failure." Whatever it was that ultimately triggered Bruch's change of mind remains a mystery, but in 1893, he wrote to the Bach researcher Philipp Spitta, the brother of his future librettist Ludwig: "You are the first, and will, for the time being, be the only person I trust to disclose a plan that so vividly occupies me. Do you wish to read intently the composition, the poetic foundation of a large-scale oratorical work: ‘Moses at Sinai' (or Israel in the Desert)... long have I sought and groped, momentarily pondering this, and then that. Because I am bound and determined to not further enhance the drama of the worldly dramatic cantata... which is why I have returned to the enclosed, truly oratorical plan, with which I was already seriously occupied in 1889, and again in 1890. It begins where Händel's ‘Israel in Egypt' ended. As far as I can conclude, no other musician of relevance has ever addressed this part of Moses' history..." Conducted by Bruch, the debut performance was finally held on the 8th of January 1895 in Barmen. It is a piece of early oratorical art that Bruch has created here, yet one that is cloaked in the era of the Late Romantic. The choir is the decisive mediator of events in the piece of work. In addition to delicate poetic expression, the dramatic impact also demands particularly creative agility and adaptation from the singers. Even Bruch's contemporaries were suspicious of the opus. In June 1895, Johannes Brahms wrote to Clara Schumann: "Bruch has now published a Moses... If only one could feel a hint of joy in the stuff! They are weaker and worse than his own early works in every respect. The only good sentiment is when one feels inclined, as I do, to thank the Lord that he spared us of the sin, the vice, or the bad habit of mere score-writing." Bruch, on the other hand, saw himself affirmed in his work and wrote to his publisher Franz Simrock in February of 1895: „I want to tell you a secret: noble and ample effects on thousands are not to be attained by common means; something higher, which cannot be defined, is working from within the productive artiste... I could have not have written ‘Moses' had not a strong and deep feeling of divinity been alive in my soul, and every deeply insightful artiste will have experienced that once in his life, so that through the medium of his art, he can proclaim to the people the best and innermost emotions of his soul... And in such, Moses proved to the world that I did not stand still – as that is the most potent danger in older age."
The oratorio so powerful and atmospheric in its choruses and arias consists of two parts and presents four episodes from the life of the prophet Moses. Part one of the opus begins with a short, dramatic introduction.
The scene At Sinai depicts Moses as the leader of the Israelites. He is called to the mountain by an angel to receive the Ten Commandments from Jehovah. During his absence, his brother Aaron is designated as keeper of the people. The Sanctus beginning with Psalm 90 of both solo parts of Moses and Aaron in alternation with the people was a core part of the opus for Bruch.
In the second scene, The Golden Calf, the plot makes a wide bend, heading towards the oratorio's tragic conflict, the Israelites' digression from Jehovah. Three impulsively scored chorus scenes portray the chosen people's restlessness and doubt caused by the prophet's long absence. The crude demand made of Aaron to produce a golden calf as a visible idol culminates in the anger of Moses, who has returned and calls to order the Israelites who are dancing around the false god Baal.
Part two (episode three), The Return of the Scouts from Canaan, begins in the middle of the conflict between Moses and the Israelites. The scouts Moses has sent to the Promised Land bring back hymnic reports of the "land of dreams", but the prophet deems the people of Israel unworthy of the Promised Land. Aaron and the Israelites arrive at deeper insight: "oh Lord, help us find mercy". A depiction of the fight with the Amalekites then follows.
In the last episode, The Promised Land, the Lord's angel proclaims to Moses his approaching end. The prophet leads his people to the Nebo Mountain where a view of Canaan is granted. Moses blesses the Israelites here before he passes away.

Solomon by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

In the summer months of 1748 Handel composed the two oratorios "Solomon" and "Susanna" for the ensuing season. He started on "Solomon" on 5th May 1748 and terminated the score on 13th June 1748 with the devotion S.(Soli) D.(Deo) G.(Gloria). The work is considered a link to Handel's later oratorios. His earlier oratorios are coloured with political affairs and allusions, as in his famous oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus", inspired by the Scottish rebellion of 1745. "Solomon" depicts a wise and god-fearing ruler, with Solomon's court presenting the image of an ideal society. The central theme of the libretto has its origin in narratives from the Old Testament: the Book of Kings (1st Kings 1-11) and the Chronicles (2nd Chr. 1-9), among others. Despite this, one ascribes this oratorio not only aspects of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but also a pantheistic world view, in which God is to be found in all aspects of life. The different qualities of King Solomon are demonstrated and celebrated in the various acts of the oratorio. It is often suggested that Handel wished to extol the golden age of England and its ruler, George II who had granted him English nationality. Handel praised the glory of England and its monarchs with this oratorio by equating them with Israel and King Solomon. He used a, for that time, very large orchestra and was able to use the unparalleled expressive possibilities in his depiction of "pomp and circumstance". The oratorio is not distinguished with a dramatic plot, but rather contains juxtaposed pictures and scenes. The ensuing static impression that emerges is balanced by the richness of colour in the individual tableaus. The different scenes and events allow Handel to use his whole palette of compositoric expression. Differentiated instrumentation, large choral pieces, soloistic elements and sensitive musical character studies demonstrate Handels great artistic ability. With two choirs and seven eight-voice choir parts he exhausts all at that time existing composition possibilities. By casting "Solomon" with a countertenor he uses opera's tradition of elevating heroes abounding with nearly supernatural strength and wisdom into the superhuman by using feminine voices.
In Act I, Solomon appears as a God-fearing King, celebrating the finishing of the temple in Jerusalem with his people, following which we see the love to his wife, his generosity, his gentleness and fidelity. Powerful, jubilant choirs bear witness to the court's splendour and glory. The passage in the text "till distant nations catch the song" from the choirs' With pious heart is composed very vividly by Handel. The numerous fugal entries mirror the different nations that spread God's message. The act ends with the royal couple's retreat into the bedchamber accompanied by a soft background choir. Nightingales (flutes) and warm breezes (deep rustling of the violins and violas) enhance the twilight atmosphere.
In Act II, the famous story of Solomon's wise judgment is told. A servant brings the petition of two dissenting women who are seeking the King's judgment. It is revealed that both women have given birth to a son. It is asserted that one of the sons died in the night and the mother swapped her dead son with the other woman's child. Both now claim to be the true mother and denote the other a liar. In this difficult situation, Solomon uses a clever ruse. He proclaims the child should be cut in two and each woman should be given one half. While one of the women consents, the other woman desperately asks him to spare her innocent child. She would rather let the other woman have him than to see him die. Thus Solomon recognizes in her sorrow and despair the true love of a mother and returns the child to her. The musical high points in this act are primarily the portrayals of the main figures, with distinctive motifs being assigned to each individual. Hard, syncopated rhythms characterize the envy, the inner turbulence and the wickedness of the childless woman, whereas the other woman, seeing her child in great danger, is accompanied by dotted figures in the bass line, which form the basic atmosphere of gnawing fear. Dissonant suspensions and modulations increase this fearful tension, until the difficult decision "take him all" leads to a resolution in major with a simultaneous, descending, mournful bass line. The characters join Solomon to form a musically masterful trio. Handel is able to elaborate and illuminate their characteristics in an unparalleled way.
With the arrival of the Queen of Sheba, the final act of the oratorio demonstrates Solomon's "foreign policy" ability. Choir pieces expressing the most diverse human emotions are performed for her entertainment, allowing Handel to demonstrate his full range of composing skills. Possibly Handel deliberately wished to incorporate the four tempers in these chorals for the Queen of Sheba: sanguine Music, spread thy voice around, choleric Shake the dome, melancholic Draw the tear from hopeless love and phlegmatic Thus rolling surges rise... and all is calm again. In the choral Shake the dome, the two choirs confront each other like two armies in battle and are further roused by the extreme dotted rhythms of the strings. The audience experiences the choirs from the standpoint of the Queen of Sheba and is thus drawn into the happenings in a way analogous to the Greek dramas. The Queen of Sheba shows herself to be impressed with the choirs' tonal versatility and Solomon's court. The following choral, Praise the Lord with harp and tongue, exalting not only God but also and above all "Solomon", is one of Handel's most magnificent works for two choirs and is thus sometimes used as the final chorale. Here, however, there follows the farewells of the two rulers and the oratorio finishes with the moral essence, "The name of the wicked shall quickly be past; but the fame of the just shall eternally last".
This live recording of "Solomon" is part of a cycle of oratorios and masses, performed in the basilica of Maulbronn Abbey under the direction of Jürgen Budday. The series combines authentically performed oratorios and masses with the optimal acoustics and atmosphere of this unique monastic church. This ideal location demands the transparency of playing and the interpretive unveiling of the rhetoric intimations of the composition, which is especially aided by the historically informed performance. The music is exclusively performed on reconstructed historical instruments, which are tuned to the pitch customary in the composer's lifetimes (this performance is tuned in a' = 415 Hz).
The two four-voice choirs are placed separately, allowing the listener to experience the complexity of the choir parts with more transparency making the unique stereophony of this work more concrete.

The Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Mozart dated his Piano Concerto in D Minor (K. 466) 10th February, 1785 - during his period as a freelance artist in Vienna from 1782 up to his death in 1791, when he was freed from the chains of the archbishop and his most definitive instrumental works originated. His father, Leopold, who was staying in Vienna at the time, reported after the premiere: "The concerto was incomparable... the orchestration splendid". The concerto KV 466 quickly advanced to being one of Mozart's most played concertos; the young Beethoven performed and wrote cadences for it, as did Clara Schumann.

The concert: "Electric Seraphim · New soundscapes for voices and electric guitars"

Five electric guitarists meet an a cappella formation of classical bias. With "Electric Seraphim", this unique musical constellation launches the listener into totally new soundscapes. The program of vocal and vocal/guitar pieces is an experiment that forms a symbiosis; the old masters encounter contemporary compositions created exclusively for this project, compelling their essence into the modern world. The result is arresting and surprisingly homogeneous. The basically intellectually abstract fusion of disparate musical composition and sound forms lying several centuries apart, reveal new perspectives relating to the development of so-called "serious music", these lying not in the niches of the abstract but rather in the synthesis of voice and instrument. This becomes apparent in, for example, the composition by Fredrik Zeller from the year 2003, Pero Pop - Sederunt, whose atmospheric content reflects that of the Sederunt principes of Perotinus from the 12th Century.

Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)

Mendelssohn's Elijah, one of the most important oratorios of the nineteenth century, premiered in Birmingham in 1846 and was emphatically celebrated both by the public and the press. According to a contemporary review, Mendelssohn turned music "into a grand sacred service". Elijah is a biblical figure, and consequently the libretto is composed entirely from biblical texts. The oratorio lacks a continuous plot. Rather, important excerpts from the life of the prophet are strung together like snapshots, some of which are highly dramatic. The prophet's ascension into heaven concludes a series of powerful, dramatic and pathetic circumstances, effectively depicted by Mendelssohn music. The oratorio ends both with a somewhat mystical reference to the Messiah as the figure who truly consummates faith and the divine work, as well as a vision of divine grandeur. Despite the lack of a continuous plot, Mendelssohn manages to create gripping, dramatic episodes. One example is the scene in which Baal's priests are derided by Elijah and become extremely irritated; their abandonment is made evident in an ingenious way: "O Baal, hear us!" - intermission - Baal does not reply! Then in total, moving contrast is Elijah' prayer "Lord God of Abraham" or the soprano aria "Listen Israel". This alternation of dramatic and lyrical sections defines the work. The chorus plays a special, important role. It sustains the action over long segments, taking the part of the people or of Baal's priests; elsewhere, it slips into the role of the community of the faithful ("Blessed is he who fears the Lord" or "He who persists until the end") and comments on the events. Mendelssohn, with the help of the minister Julius Schubring, essentially took the entire text from 1 Kings 17-19 and 2 Kings 1-2. Mendelssohn wrote Schubring on 2 November 1838, with regard to the character Elijah: "For Elijah I had in mind a proper prophet through and through, of the sort we could use again today: strong, zealous, as well as angry, furious and grim, in opposition to the rabble of the court and of the people, in opposition to nearly the whole world, and yet borne as if by angels' wings." Seen in this way, the prophet Elijah, and hence Mendelssohn's oratorio, is once again extremely relevant for us today.
Elijah opens in dramatic fashion, not with the customary overture but with Elijah proclaiming the curse, much as the prophet himself abruptly appeared to Ahab. Mendelssohn in fact planned to omit the overture altogether since it interfered with the developing story line, but was later persuaded by Bartholomew to add one, placing it, however, after Elijah's introduction. This performance returns to Mendelssohn's original concept and the overture has been discarded. The people plead for rain ("Help, Lord" and "Lord, bow Thine ear") while Obadiah urges them to repent. An angel sends Elijah to the widow of Zarephath ("Elijah, get thee hence.") Elijah's duet with the widow ("What have I to do with thee") provides the first great dramatic moment, when Elijah prays to the Lord three times that her son might be restored to life. The magnificent chorus "Blessed are the men who fear Him" is one of Schubring's interpolations into the story, but provides Mendelssohn with an opportunity for some wonderfully evocative writing, such as the ascending triads to the text "through darkness riseth light." Elijah returns to face Ahab ("As God the Lord of Sabaoth") and places his challenge to the priests of Baal. The priests invoke Baal ("Baal, we cry to thee") while Elijah mocks them ("Call him louder"). This is the dramatic high point of the oratorio, with Elijah's calm contrasting with the increasingly frenetic music of the chorus. Their invocation ends with a fortissimo "Hear and answer!" which is followed by dead silence, surely one of the most dramatic and effective moments in oratorio. By contrast, Elijah then invokes the Lord with music of great nobility and simplicity ("Draw near, all ye people.") There is a brief interpolation by a quartet ("Cast thy burden upon the Lord") before the fire comes down from heaven ("O Thou, who makest thine angels spirits.") Obadiah pleads with Elijah to send rain ("O man of God, help thy people.") Three times Elijah prays to the Lord for rain ("Thou hast overthrown thine enemies") and sends a young boy to the top of a hill to look out over the sea for rain. At the third time the rain comes, and the people join in an exuberant hymn of praise ("Thanks be to God.").
Part II of Elijah begins with hymns of reassurance ("Hear ye, Israel!" and "Be not afraid"), but Elijah is soon embroiled in controversy again. He confronts Ahab, taking him to task for his idolatry ("The Lord hath exalted thee") while Jezebel stirs up the people against Elijah ("Woe to him.") Obadiah advises him to flee ("Man of God") and Elijah, alone in the desert, is in despair ("It is enough.") Angels come and comfort him ("Lift thine eyes" and "He watching over Israel") and Elijah makes his way to Mount Horeb to await the Lord. Here Mendelssohn again uses some vividly descriptive music depicting the fury of the wind, the earthquake and the fire, contrasting that with the simplicity to which he sets the text "and in that still voice, onward came the Lord." There follows another hymn of praise ("Holy is God the Lord") and a choral recitative ("Go, return upon thy way") as Elijah is sent back to Israel refreshed in spirit ("For the mountains shall depart.") Elijah is taken up to heaven in a whirlwind ("Then did Elijah") followed by Schubring's final interpolation, an invitation to come to the Lord ("O come, everyone that thirsteth") and the final choral hymn of praise ("And then shall your light break forth"), ending the oratorio with a majestic fugue. Those familiar with Elijah may have detected another omission, the solo aria "O rest in the Lord." While it has become one of the most popular pieces in Elijah, Mendelssohn was originally inclined to cut it from the score. The melody bore a resemblance to a popular ballad and Mendelssohn did not really like it. It "is a song to which I have always had an objection," he wrote. "I shall leave it out altogether (I think) ... (I) believe it an improvement if it is left out." As it happened, Mendelssohn was persuaded by Bartholomew to leave it in, but in this performance the composer's original intention is being respected.