Stellaris Andreas Waldetoft

This disc collects a great variety of performances recorded for the Decca label by German-born countertenor Andreas Scholl, who says that the high male voice in which he sings is something he produces naturally, not something he specially cultivates. He makes you believe it. The diverse program is logically organized, with Baroque arias of various kinds surrounding a central core of quieter material, and sonically Decca has made a convincing whole out of material with various producers and recording locales.

Selections from "Trilogy", "Down to the Moon", "Dancing with the Lion", "The Book of Roses" and "Eolian Minstrel", performed live by Vollenweider and his collaborators in concert tours from 1992 through 1994. This 2-CD set also includes an additional nine tracks of previously unreleased material done in a similar style to the cuts on the aforementioned albums - a wonderful bonus for fans of vintage Vollenweider. It's nice to hear the in-concert variations and improvisations of old favorites, and how gratifying also to hear all the live cheers and applause for this truly amazing artist and his repertoire of uniquely fascinating compositions.

Selections from "Trilogy", "Down to the Moon", "Dancing with the Lion", "The Book of Roses" and "Eolian Minstrel", performed live by Vollenweider and his collaborators in concert tours from 1992 through 1994. This 2-CD set also includes an additional nine tracks of previously unreleased material done in a similar style to the cuts on the aforementioned albums - a wonderful bonus for fans of vintage Vollenweider. It's nice to hear the in-concert variations and improvisations of old favorites, and how gratifying also to hear all the live cheers and applause for this truly amazing artist and his repertoire of uniquely fascinating compositions.

Johann Sebastian Bachs organ artistry made a powerful impression in St. Catherines Church when he applied for the coveted organists post at the Principal Church of St. James in Hamburg in 1720. Since Bach, unlike his rival, was unwilling to contribute the immense sum of four thousand marks as his dowry, he did not prevail but instead found a new job in Leipzig a few years later. In Leipzig he initially discharged other duties before he again came forward as an instrumental composer with a dazzling cycle of organ chorales in 1739. Andreas Fischer has freshly recorded this Third Part of the Clavierübung on his very own St. Catherines organ certainly in a rendering that would have brought joy to Bach, who could not praise enough this instrument outstanding in every respect.

This musical journey takes its title from one of William Corbett's Bizzarie universali, a set of concertos which, in truth, owe much more to the Italian tradition than to the Iberian peninsula.

Balthasar Erben, born in Danzig in 1626, was a cosmopolitan. When he applied for the position of Kapellmeister at the main church of St. Mary in his home town at the age of 27, the council granted him a generous grant so that he could "look around the world and perfect himself as a composer". Erben was on the road in Europe for five years and visited all the centers of musical culture up to Rome.

Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer has joined forces with Chinese pianist Yuja Wang to record an album of works by composers of the Romantic era. Blue Hour features some of the jewels of the repertoire, including Brahms’s Intermezzo in A major, Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words – arranged for clarinet and piano by Ottensamer – and Weber’s virtuosic Grand Duo concertant. The album reveals Ottensamer to be not just a sensitive and responsive chamber partner, but also a brilliant soloist, as he gives a dazzling performance of Weber’s First Clarinet Concerto, recorded with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Mariss Jansons.

The composer Friedrich Gernsheim, who was highly respected during his lifetime, is largely unknown today. Yet, especially in his choral compositions, he broke away from traditional ideas of form at an early stage and was thus ahead of many of his contemporaries. With this recording, Tristan Meister and Vox Quadrata have set themselves the goal of bringing the forgotten choral works of the Jewish composer back into the public consciousness.

With the Latvian Festival Orchestra Riga directed by Karsten Januschke, German bass Andreas Bauer Kanabas unleashes passions of love, treason and despair in a well-chosen programme of arias. At the point of deception, the soul not only experiences the greatest disappointment, but also clarity and truthfulness. Andreas Bauer Kanabas traces these moments of deep longing and melancholy with interpretations that are rooted in great emotional power.