Alexander Sadicu

Opulent and imaginative Telemann oratorios In the church year 1730/31, Telemann performed a year of a special conception: in the divine service, downright oratorios were to be sounded.

Kölner Akademie and Kölner Akademie Choir's rendition of Lukas-Passion is a powerful and moving interpretation of this lesser-known work by German composer Johann Heinrich Rolle.

Alexander Melnikov returns to Rachmaninoff with an exploration of the poetic world of the Variations on a Theme by Chopin. He travelled to Lake Lucerne to record this album on the master’s own piano at Villa Senar, Rachmaninoff’s last summer home. To accompany this eminently lyrical music, he joins forces with the luminous soprano of Julia Lezhneva and invites us to discover some of the Russian composer’s most beautiful songs from this period of intense creative ferment.

Alexander Melnikov returns to Rachmaninoff with an exploration of the poetic world of the Variations on a Theme by Chopin. He travelled to Lake Lucerne to record this album on the master’s own piano at Villa Senar, Rachmaninoff’s last summer home. To accompany this eminently lyrical music, he joins forces with the luminous soprano of Julia Lezhneva and invites us to discover some of the Russian composer’s most beautiful songs from this period of intense creative ferment.

With the exception of Jesus Christ, virtually no figure in antiquity is more renowned in the history of the West than Alexander the Great. His feats are the stuff of legend, inspiring medieval romances, painting and sculptures, and even blockbuster movies. And more than two millennia after the legendary ruler's death, Alexander's remarkable victory over the Persians in 331 B.C. still stands as an emblem for superlative military leadership.

With the exception of Jesus Christ, virtually no figure in antiquity is more renowned in the history of the West than Alexander the Great. His feats are the stuff of legend, inspiring medieval romances, painting and sculptures, and even blockbuster movies…

Zu den erfolgreichsten Werken, die Georg Friedrich Händel in London geschrieben hat, gehört seine Ode "Alexander´s Feast or The Power of Music". Komponiert hatte Händel dieses "Alexanderfest" als Huldigung an die Heilige Cecilia, die Schutzpatronin der Musik. Angelehnt an die große englische Chortradition, erzählt das Alexanderfest die Geschichte vom Feldherrn Alexander dem Großen, der von der Macht der Musik zu großen Taten bewegt wird, und basiert auf einem 1697 von John Dryden verfassten, damals berühmten Text. Bei der Uraufführung 1736 feierten 1300 Zuhörer, darunter auch die Königsfamilie, Händels kontrastreiche, den Bogen von majestätisch bis melancholisch spannende Musik für Vokalsolisten, Chor und Orchester.

Among the most successful works written by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) in London is his ode "Alexander's Feast or The Power of Music". Handel composed this piece as an homage to Saint Cecilia.

A once abandoned Passion project by J. S. Bach? Harpsichordist and conductor Alexander Grychtolik, together with the Il Gardellino Orchestra, embarks on a captivating artistic experiment with this presentation of the Passion Oratorio BWV Anh. 169. The starting point for the partial reconstruction attempt and the completion of the work is the surviving libretto by the poet Picander from 1725. This unique endeavor draws the audience into a profound exploration of human empathy with the poignant suffering of Jesus and sheds light on a passion aesthetic we had not seen previously in Bach’s repertoire.

The harpsichordist and conductor Alexander Grychtolik and the top Belgian ensemble Il Gardellino present here on PASSACAILLE an attempt to reconstruct the Passion oratorio BWV Anh. 169, which Bach began around 1725 but then
abandoned or had to abandon. This recording is intended to show that with Picander's free Passion poem, the composer must also have planned his own contribution to the then extremely popular genre of the freely composed Passion oratorio. Numerous detailed questions about the work will probably remain unanswered forever. In the spirit of artistic experimentation, however, this version is intended to explore a new aspect of Bach's Passion aesthetics.