Musik Der Engel

The recording of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, conducted by René Jacobs, was one of the discographic highlights of the year at its 1997 release. Critics around the world praised the "sophisticated interpretation", the "splendid cast", the "expressiveness of the evangelist" as well as the "compelling acting performance of the singers".

Stories about Wunderlich's meteoric rise to success, his incredibly heavy workload or his seemingly effortless acquisition of new repertoire have been told again and again - sometimes painting an idealized and sometimes a distorted picture of the artist. The nine installments of the SWR retrospective that have been released by SWR CLASSIC to this day feature Fritz Wunderlich as a singer of songs, (an unequalled) Mozart tenor, a brilliant interpreter of the greatest tenor hits, a fascinating singer of operettas and as a tasteful interpreter of light music, to name but a few of the genres that made up his repertoire.

The narrative of Christ’s Passion as retold by Barthold Brockes (a dominant figure in early 18th-century German literature) is of such dramatic power that it was set to music by 13 different composers (including Handel, Keiser, and Mattheson)! Telemann’s version, premiered on 2 April 1716, became so famous that J. S. Bach, no immature youngster at the time, copied it out in full 23 years later . . . René Jacobs has striven to restore this quite extraordinary score to life in all its rich complexity.

With the belief that “No opera loses so much as Die Zauberflöte if one strips it of its drama and that means, above all, the spoken dialogue,” René Jacobs’ agenda in Die Zauberflöte is to rehabilitate the reputation of Schikaneder’s libretto. At the heart of his reassesment is the idea that Schikaneder and Mozart’s Masonic message is deeper and more carefully presented than we have thought. He suggests that seemingly silly or inconsistent aspects of the story are put there as intentional false paths as the audience, not only the prince and the bird catcher, undergoes its own trials of initiation. The opera’s symbolism and structure are explained in convincing detail in an essay in the booklet by the Egyptologist and Mozart researcher Jan Assman.

Since it's founding in Freiburg in 1958, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi has been one of the most important and ambitious labels for period performances. Over decades, globally-acclaimed recordings were created with outstanding musicians. The limited edition "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi: 100 Great Recordings" contains 100 outstanding DHM recordings with some of the most important and best artists in their field: Nuria Rial, Dorothee Mields, Al Ayre Espanol, Hille Perl, Concentus Musicus Wien, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Freiburger Barockorchester, Skip Sempé, Capriccio Stravagante, La Petite Bande, Gustav Leonhardt, Andrew Lawrence-King, Frieder Bernius, the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Thomas Hengelbrock and many others.

Gerd Wienekamp, the man behind Der Laborant is one half of Rainbow Serpent. Kontakt is a superb album soaked by a great musicality where melodies, as much cadenced as cosmic, evolve on structures in constants evolution. From ambient to rhythmic, with rhythms bordering a sweet morphic techno, Kontakt is making us to listen all the beautiful universe of Rainbow Serpent where the multitude of electronic tones gives an incredible relief to this album where we recognized the signature of Gerd Wienekamp.

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Engel-Prozessionen (2004) {2CD Set Stockhausen-Verlag No. 67}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 332 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 196 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 69 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2004 Stockhausen-Verlag | Stockhausen 67
Classical / Avant-Garde / Experimental / 20th Century

Since 1991, a complete edition of all recordings in which Karlheinz Stockhausen has personally participated is being released on compact discs. Each CD in this series is identified by Stockhausen's signature followed by an encircled number. The numbers indicate the general historical order of the works. Stockhausen realised the electronic music and participated in these recordings as conductor, performer, sound projectionist, and musical director. He personally mixed down the recordings, mastered them for CDs, wrote the texts and drew the covers.