Morgenröte

In East Germany in the early 1970’s Martin Zeichnete worked as a sound editor for DEFA, (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), the state-owned film studio. Like many young East Germans of the time he would listen furtively to West German radio at night and became infatuated with the Kosmische Musik or ‘Krautrock’ epitomised by the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster emerging from his neighbouring country. Martin, a keen runner, hit upon the idea of using the repetitive, motorik beats of this new music as a training aid for athletes. He thought it could benefit the mind as well as the body with the pulsing, hypnotic music bringing focus. A ‘borrowed’ prototype of Andreas Pavel’s Stereobelt showed Martin the technology to provide music on the move already existed and could easily be adapted for runners.

The pearl of great price: the German tenor who could make you wish to retract all you ever thought, wrote or spoke about the species, the Mozart tenor who could sound both elegant and manly, the singer who could almost persuade you that Strauss loved the tenor voice as he did the soprano. We hear Wunderlich in this collection additionally as Rossini’s Almaviva, scrupulous with his triplets and almost as careful with his scales. His “Il mio tesoro” drops not a semiquaver and takes the long phrases with confident ease.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt präsentierte 2009 einen der spannendsten Beiträge zum Haydn-Jubiläumsjahr. Seine Neueinspielung der berühmten Jahreszeiten von Haydn mit dem Originalklangorchester Concentus Musicus Wien bietet einen liebevoll im Detail ausgemalten, kontraststarken und spannungsreichen Bilderbogen - mit wild brausenden Winterstürmen, brütender Sommerhitze, heftigem Gewitter und einem ausschweifenden Winzerfest. Das Solistenterzett mit Genia Kühmeiers mädchenhaften Sopran, dem kultivierten Tenor von Werner Güra und dem ausdruckstarken, lyrischen Bariton von Christian Gerhaher lässt keine Wünsche offen. 2010 erhielt Nikolaus Harnoncourt für diese Einspielung den Echo Klassik für die beste Chorwerk-Einspielung des Jahres.