Cologne Cathedral

20,000 people visit Cologne Cathedral every day; that's a total of six million visitors per year. For many art historians, the cathedral is the "most Gothic of Gothic cathedrals", architecture par excellence.

SOMM Recordings announces the second instalment in Bruckner from the Archives, “a major commemorative series” (ConcertoNet.com) in six double-CD volumes celebrating the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth in 1824.

With their new album, Cologne soprano Theresa Nelles and cathedral organist Winfried Bönig invite their listeners to an atmospheric Christmas Eve in Cologne Cathedral, performing a rich and varied program of Romantic repertoire from various countries: music for the Christmas feast that goes straight to the heart. Bönig never limits the role of the organ to that of a simple accompanying instrument, but skilfully presents it with all its tonal colors. The great acoustics of the Cologne Cathedral were consciously captured in an impressive way.

To step inside a Gothic cathedral is to step inside the visual essence of the Christian faith—a world filled with vaulted ceilings that direct the visitor's gaze toward heaven, stone sculptures that bring to life both the blessings of salvation and the horrors of damnation, and stained glass windows that illustrate powerful religious stories in dazzling bursts of color.

At its core, Grandbrothers’ music represents a communion between the old and the new. On their extraordinary new album, Late Reflections (out April 14 on City Slang), the German-Swiss duo place their art in communion with an institution so old it predates their music by seven centuries: Cologne Cathedral. The iconic monument of Gothic architecture, which is both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Germany’s most visited landmark, served as an unusual recording studio for Grandbrothers’ fourth album, marking the only time the Cathedral has ever permitted a recording of this kind.

Cathedral organist Winfried Bönig plays works by Dupré, Barber, Messiaen, Howells on the Klais organs of Cologne Cathedral.