Beethoven Für Kinder

Schon zu Beginn seiner Karriere ist es für den Pianisten Martin Stadtfeld zur Herzensangelegenheit geworden, Kinder und Jugendliche an die klassische Musik heranzuführen. So weckte er bereits die Neugier der Kinder und Jugendliche für die großen Komponisten mit seinem Album "Bachs Wohltemperiertes Klavier für Kinder". Nun legt Stadtfeld passend zum Beethoven-Jahr 2020 die Doppel-CD "Beethoven für Kinder" vor, auf der er als Pianist und Erzähler zu erleben ist.

Begonnen hat die Laufbahn von Martin Stadtfeld mit einem Klavier vom Räumungsverkauf. Schon mit sieben Jahren steht sein Berufswunsch fest: Konzertpianist. Früh erkundet er die Regeln und Geheimnisse von Kontrapunkt und Harmonielehre; als Jungstudent kommt er in Frankfurt in die Klasse von Lev Natochenny. Es beginnt die Zeit, in der Stadtfeld bei Wettbewerben für Furore sorgt, er gewinnt Preise in Paris, in Bozen – und in Leipzig. Den dortigen Bach-Wettbewerb kann Martin Stadtfeld im Jahr 2002 als Gewinner des ersten Preises für sich entscheiden.

Ludwig van Beethoven's music and the myth of Prometheus are not suitable for children's ears? Far from it!

National Socialism had devised its own notion of the value of German art and culture. This was ruthlessly put into practice when the Nazis took over power in 1933. The more than 175 "degenerate" recorded musical items in this extraordinary 10-CD box set, 'Forbidden But Not Forgotten', relate to the shocking consequences due to that "cleansing". The burning of the Reichstag (7th April) provided the pretext for the prosecution of all who held other political opinions, for the burning of books (10th May) whose authors were on the index of disfavoured and banned writers, for the law that amended entry to the civil service (7th April) that excluded all non-Aryans and led to wholesale dismissals of Jews, especially in orchestras, the administration, among singers, conductors and instrumentalists. By means of the exhibitions "Degenerate Art" (Munich, 1937) and "Degenerate Music" (Düsseldorf, 1938) art and artists who were now to have no place in Nazi Germany were pilloried.

Over a performing career spanning half a century, Christa Ludwig, born in 1928, consistently proved her greatness. “A source of as deep a satisfaction and fulfilment as the greatest of my operatic roles,” is how she described the place of song in her life, and at the heart of this collection are the emblematic composers of the Austro-German repertoire. Throughout, Christa Ludwig’s interpretative insight is as rich and compelling as her voice, exceptional for its beauty, range and flexibility.

This 7th volume of Fritz Kreisler’s complete recordings takes us to the end of his acoustic sessions and to the first to use the new Victor electric system. Kreisler was exceptionally busy after the turmoil of WWI with a comeback in America, groundbreaking global tours, and a warm welcome back to England after being considered an ‘enemy alien’ during the war. At HMV he was joined by cellist Hugo Kreisler, whose fine singing legato adds a breath of Viennese style to the sound. At the introduction of microphone recording with its heightened realism and fidelity, Fritz Kreisler’s playing was still at its peak, also benefitting from his favourite 1733 Stradivarius in Victor’s New York studio.