Collee, Miriam

A repertoire gap provided the impetus for a genuine new discovery: there is plenty of repertoire for the flute from the Baroque period and again since the 20th century. However, the productive Romantic era treated this instrument somewhat neglected. The Terragni/Sarasin duo wanted to remedy the situation and resorted to the tried and tested means of adaptation, which has been common in music for centuries. The object of the adaptation to the flute was not a well-known work, but a real trouvaille: the violin sonata by the composer Emilie Mayer, who was sometimes described in her time (although much younger) as the “female Beethoven”. Only a few interventions in the original text were necessary to make this energetic work appear in a new guise. The sonata is complemented by an original suite by Laura Netzel, who is also little known today, and several smaller pieces by the two female composers, which once again impressively prove what repertoire treasures there still are to be unearthed off the beaten track.

After nearly three decades spent perfecting her multilayered harmony techniques and range of styles as a jingle singer, vocalist for Adiemus and session artist for the likes of George Michael, David Bowie, Tina Turner, and Seal, Miriam Stockley emerges with her debut solo recording, Miriam. An amalgamation of African inspired pop, Celtic folksiness, and classically tinged commercial pop, Miriam is a selection of strongly focused vocals embedded in a tapestry of curiously effective composition. Strings swell and swirl round the singer's potent vocals, reed instruments slice through the smooth flow of keyboards, drums and penny whistle set place and mood. Indicative of what is right with both adult contemporary pop and multiethnic easy listening, Miriam steers clear of easy categorization while remaining familiar enough to be commercially viable.

"Ich bin vergnugt" (I am content) is the title of the new CD by soprano Miriam Feuersinger. It refers to Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata "Ich bin vergnugt mit meinem Glucke" BWV 84, but it also corresponds entirely to the feelings of the singer, who is fulfilling a long-cherished wish of her heart with this programme.

The outstanding musical significance of Johann Rosenmüller, who was said to be able to merge Italian sensuality and German “gravitas” in his compositions in the most harmonious way, was already undisputed among his contemporaries. He studied in Leipzig, and quite soon the town council realized that he was a musician of an immense talent. Rosenmüller therefore received a position at the famous Leipzig Thomasschule, and was considered as the future successor of the ill Thomaskantor, Tobias Michael.

Over the course of his long and eventful career, Dussek composed 38 violin sonatas – or rather sonatas for the keyboard, accompanied by the violin – and the partnership of Julia Huber and Miriam Altmann is acquiring impressive credentials and critical praise as they gradually uncover them for the first time.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.

When you ask people which superpower they would choose if they could have only one, many answer that they would want the power of flight. Although I personally would prefer invisibility, I also think there is something enviable about the freedom of being able to fly, to soar through the sky, above all the stress and troubles of life down on the ground. A lot has been said and written about how Vaughan Williams wrote The Lark Ascending during the 1st World War “when a pastoral scene of a singing bird on the wing seemed far removed from reality” (Betsy Schwarm, Britannica). I sometimes imagine people living through difficult times looking up at the lark, envying its life and freedom that they wish they had. It's a moving piece with soaring melodies and the lark's “silver chain of sound” (George Meredith's poem The Lark Ascending).