Magnum Opus Magnum Opus

German pianist Angelika Nebel continues her exploration of Bach transcriptions with Opus Magnum I – a continuation of her previous releases Bach: Illuminationes and Bach: Metamorphosis. The transcriptions in this release fuse the music of Bach with the 20th century, featuring interpretations by Wagner Stefani d'Aragona Malheiro, Harriet Cohen and the eminent Edwin Fischer. Two of the works have been transcribed by Angelika Nebel herself. Angelika Nebel’s repertoire includes solo, orchestral and chamber music from the 18th to 21st century. She has performed internationally, and has been a guest artist at many festivals, including Rheingau Musik Festival and the 52nd Bad Hersfelder Festspielkonzerte. She has also worked with numerous radio stations across Europe and in 1995 was appointed as a professor at the Robert Schumann College in Düsseldorf.

Despite its importance as a key text of the Western esoteric traditions this is the first ever contemporary English translation of this book…

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), the great mathematician and astronomer, was very much concerned all of his life with the connection between practical music and cosmology. He felt strongly that music mirrors the cosmos and used phrases such as “the Song of the Earth” and “Nature’s secret whispering”. He broke from his contemporaries who thought that the motions of the planets and other heavenly bodies actually made sound, but thought that those motions and all of the geometry of the heavens were reflected in the most perfect polyphonic pieces of his time.
Concerto Palatino proposes a program centered on the ideas of Johannes Kepler and the music of his lifetime. Taking Tui sunt coeli by Orlando di Lasso as a point of departure the group explores other polyphonic and polychoral music of Lasso and his contemporaries (Andrea Gabrieli, Lambert de Sayve, Hans Leo Hassler, etc.). In addition, they commissioned a new work for the project by the renowned composer Calliope Tsoupaki. Her new piece is called Astron (To the stars) and is based on a Delphic Hymn.For this project, Concerto Palatino was joined by a truly “star-studded” lineup of singers: Hana Blažíková and Barbora Kabátková, sopranos; Alex Potter, countertenor; Benedict Hymans and Jan van Elsacker, tenor; Tomáš Kral, baritone; and Jaromir Nosek, bass.