All Werk is Play

Metal Meets Classic Live + All G.U.N. Bonustracks is a live concert recording by German heavy metal band Rage, released as a DVD in November 2001 under name "Rage & Lingua Mortis Orchestra". This DVD was released in 2001 by G.U.N. Records without asking the band for permission. It contains a concert from May 7, 1998 in E-Werk, Cologne, Germany…

Franz Joseph Haydn - The Creation (Die Schopfung)
EAC RIP | WAVPACK + CUE + LOG | HQ Scans
NAXOS | Recorded: 2003 | Released: 2005
VokalEnsemble Koln - Capella Augustina - Andreas Spering

Although The Creation is no stranger to period-instrument performance, two in particular spring to mind as particularly outstanding. The first of these is Christopher Hogwood's on L'Oiseau-Lyre, which is in English and remains the only version to assemble the huge forces for which Haydn actually wrote, with singularly thrilling results. Second, there is Hengelbrock on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, who demonstrated that at least on recordings the music can sound just as big and colorful, but without extensive doubling of instrumental parts. In his version of The Seasons, René Jacobs accomplished a similar feat, and so does this newcomer, even outdoing Hengelbrock in wringing every last drop of color from Haydn's perennially fresh orchestration. All of the other period performances, including Brüggen, Weil, Harnoncourt (twice), Kuijken, and Gardener, stand at some remove from these three.

Christoph Prégardien & Andreas Staier - Lieder
Songs by Beethoven, Krufft & Lachner
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 249 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Teldec "Das Alte Werk" # 3984-21473-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1999
Genre: Classical | Style: Vocal, Songs

…This is a wholly valid view of the work, lovingly shaped and executed in that particularly plaintive tone of the tenor’s. The Goethe settings, two of Beethoven’s greatest pieces for voice and keyboard, complete one’s pleasure in this absorbing recital.

This new recording was recorded in Berlin, not in Venice as the cover says. It’s also pretty big on personality – that of Albrecht Mayer himself, principal oboist of the Berlin Phil, photographed on the cover ‘playing’ (?) his oboe at the prow of a gondola and several times in double-page spreads in the brochure. He actually appears twice in some of the two-page spreads. All of which made me fear the worst. I’m very pleased to report, however, that my worst expectations were not realised; far from it, in fact – this turned out to be a most enjoyable recording, very well performed and recorded.