Robert Len

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Nathan Berg is already well known to audiences from his many recordings in operas, cantatas, masses and symphonies working with conductors such as Rene Jacob, William Christie and Robert Shaw. He has recorded for Harmonia Mundi, Telarc, Philips and Erato. On Hyperion he has recently appeared with Marjana Lipovsek in Graham Johnson’s complete Schubert series, and with Sophie Daneman in Mendelssohn. For his debut solo disc on ATMA Nathan Berg has selected a programme covering more than a century of romantic German lieder, including some of the best-loved songs of the genre by Schumann, Brahms, Strauss and Schubert.

Beethoven wrote in his diary that he wanted "to show the British what a treasure they have in God Save the King", a reference to his set of variations on the national anthem, composed in 1803. Sarah Beth Briggs recorded the virtuoso set precisely one month before the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, and the recording heralds the coronation of King Charles III in May 2023. \n\nThe lesser-known Variations on an Original Theme in F major (1802) represent Beethoven the revolutionary. Uniquely, each variation was written in a different key which would have jarred the ears of the composer's contemporaries. \n\nSarah Beth Briggs' collection of Variations underlines a lineage of the genre through the classical and romantic eras. Opening the programme is 9 Variations on a Minuet by Duport by Mozart, whom Beethoven greatly admired. The work takes a theme by cellist Jean-Pierre Duport, chamber music director of the court of the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm II, from whom the composer hoped to gain favour.