Manuel Heckel

Hans Leo Hassler is considered one of the most significant personalities among Late Renaissance composers in the German-speaking world. A striking number of his works have been published as printed editions early on, for instance in 1590, when he only was aged 24, the Canzonette a quatro voci in Nuremberg and one year later in Augsburg the Cantiones sacrae, where among others the motets Dixit Maria and Beata es virgo Maria as well as the Magnificat octavi toni have first been released. In his Missa octo vocum, the mass for eight-part double choir, Hassler follows the sequence of the Catholic mass with its six parts that comprise its ordinary: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. The Ensemble Vox Archangeli is directed by bassist Manuel Schuen, who is also performing on the Sieber-organ at St Michael’s Church in Vienna.

Beethoven’s five sonatas for violoncello and piano form a cosmos all of their own. They exemplarily represent this Titan’s three compositional periods, and the interrelations between them shape a surprisingly self-contained work group surveying the composer’s entire life. Reason enough for Manuel Fischer-Dieskau and Connie Shih to present an absolutely new recording of this cycle – now for the first time on SACD in original 2+2+2 surround sound!