Bernhard Schwalbe Gedchtnisrede

The Pianist Bernhard Parz (born 1979 in Vienna) studied Piano at the University of Music in Vienna and the Conservatory of Music Vienna. In his career he has earned several prizes (i.e. 1st prize at "International Johannes Brahms Competition") and played concerts throughout Asia, South America and Europe.

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin returns to Pentatone together with soprano Christina Landshamer, presenting La Passione, a collection of dazzling concert arias on love, longing and loss by Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, paired with the latter’s “La Passione” Symphony. Ranging from pastoral simplicity to exuberant outrage, the programme offers some of the finest vocal writing around 1800, including some of Beethoven’s rare and little-known excursions to Italian bravura opera, as well as one of the most dramatic and expressive symphonies of the eighteenth-century.

Cleverly paired with two symphonies by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach – written in 1755/56 and 1775/76 respectively – Beethoven’s first two contributions to the symphonic genre reveal the bubbling creativity of a thirty-year-old composer determined to go even further in the renewal of the genre than another, very recent reference, Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’. So much is clear from the very first chord of his Symphony No. 1! Relive this decisive moment in the company of the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik, under the guidance of their Konzertmeister Bernhard Forck.

A popular German singer and radio and TV host, Bernhard Brink was born on May 17, 1952, and by the early '70s he was well on his way to a law degree in Berlin when he decided to concentrate on music instead. He eventually signed to Hansa Records and released a dozen or so charting singles between 1974 and 1981, many of which were thinly disguised adaptations of English pop tunes.

Silvius Leopold Weiss (1687-1750) left behind an enormous oeuvre of over 600 works for and with lute, which not only impresses with its virtuosity but also with its musical quality and characterises him both as a composer of the first rank and documents his exceptional status as a lutenist.

The least famous of Beethoven’s symphonies? Yet these two works are genuine tours de force: the composer takes the listener on a journey whose destination never seems to be known in advance, one brimming over with structural innovations subtly brought out in this interpretation by the musicians of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

“I have had this formation in mind for some time now,” Bernhard Meyer says about his quintet, which unites an unusual combination of instruments and charismatic musicians. “The specific sound came together over time in my imagination,” Meyer continues, “inspired by collaboration with these musicians individually, in smaller formations.” Of course the ingenious unity with his brother Peter is present again, well known through three highly acclaimed albums and countless concerts of the Melt Trio.

Keyboardist, producer, composer, Funk n' Bowl vet, and house musician for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s band, Corey Bernhard will release his sophomore solo full-length album exploring themes of faith, God, love, and loss, A Blessed Leap into Eternity via Birdbrain Records on January 24, 2025.