Wolfgang Swahllisch

German-American organist Wolfgang Rübsam is known for many recordings of music from the Baroque and Romantic periods, as well as for his own compositions and his long career as an educator.

A renowned organist transfers his decades of experience as a Bach player to the harpsichord, for his first recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier.

Born in Munich in 1923, Wolfgang Sawallisch was a prominent representative of the German conducting tradition, known for his thoughtful and refined interpretations of the classical repertoire. Beginning piano studies when he was five, Sawallisch developed rapidly as a child musician. His piano teachers were Ruoff, Haas, and Sachse. In 1947, following graduation from the Munich Hochschule für Musik, Sawallisch began his professional career, working first as a repetiteur and chorus master at the Augsburg Opera Theater. In 1949, he and his recital partner, violinist Gerhard Seitz, won the Geneva International Competition as best duo. In the same year, he began obtaining guest conducting assignments. When Sawallisch conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1953, he was the youngest person ever to have led that orchestra.

Wolfgang Mitterer studied organ, composition and electroacoustics in Vienna and Stockholm. He is not only one of the Austrian specialists for electronics as well as being equally brilliant on the keyboard and on the slide controls, but is also one of the most innovative composers. His work oscillates between composition and open form. Apart from music for organ and orchestra, a piano concerto and an opera he has produced electronic pieces, conceptualized sound installations, and engaged in collective improvisation with diverse groups, developing a language of extremes, tension and complexity.

The complete 6 English Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), played on the lute-harpsichord by Wolfgang Rübsam. There is little “English” about these suites.

Playwright Luise Gottsched, née Kulmus, in 1732 wrote a letter to her future husband, the writer Johann Christoph Gottsched: "The keyboard pieces sent over by Bach… are as difficult as they are beautiful.

The complete 6 English Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), played on the lute-harpsichord by Wolfgang Rübsam. There is little “English” about these suites.

Jazz pianist and drummer Wolfgang Mitschke became known to a wider audience with the fusion jazz albums "Night Over Berlin" (in 2005) and "Midnight Moods" (in 2008) released on the jazz label SKIP-Records. On these albums Wolfgang Mitschke already knew how to use today's technical possibilities "single-handedly" with perfectly sampled sounds, playing the piano and the electric piano, the bass, the rhythm guitar, the strings and the drums so organically that a round sound picture was created.

When Beethoven published his first violin sonatas, there was much criticism. They are unplayable, full of technical hurdles and impossible to overcome by amateur musicians who in the 19th century still quite naturally bought notes of newly composed music.

For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert's secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvorák - the latter's Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).