Der Gmbhgesellschafter

Gentle and haunting spirits from distant spheres meet in a surging world of dreams and lullabies in 'The Girl and the Angel, a musical narrative'. This work interweaves a new story by bestselling author Cornelia Funke with expressive new compositions by Luna Pearl Woolf and familiar and popular songs by Irving Berlin, Lennon / McCartney, Jake Heggie, Engelbert Humperdinck, Gordon Getty and others. Cornelia Funke herself captures her story with rousing songs by Frederica von Stade, Daniel Taylor, Lisa Delan and Zhen Cao, accompanied by the lush cellos of Matt Haimovitz and his Uccello ensemble.

Gentle and haunting spirits from distant spheres meet in a surging world of dreams and lullabies in 'The Girl and the Angel, a musical narrative'. This work interweaves a new story by bestselling author Cornelia Funke with expressive new compositions by Luna Pearl Woolf and familiar and popular songs by Irving Berlin, Lennon / McCartney, Jake Heggie, Engelbert Humperdinck, Gordon Getty and others. Cornelia Funke herself captures her story with rousing songs by Frederica von Stade, Daniel Taylor, Lisa Delan and Zhen Cao, accompanied by the lush cellos of Matt Haimovitz and his Uccello ensemble.

Maestro Marek Janowski leads a sensational cast — including star vocalists Lise Davidsen and Andreas Schager — on this new recording of Der Freischütz, the German Romantic opera par excellence. In the years after its 1821 premiere, the catchy melodies, picturesque charm and spooky scenes of Der Freischütz thrilled audiences throughout Europe. Janowski’s inspired reading lifts out the symphonic qualities of Carl Maria von Weber’s masterpiece, and makes clear why colleagues such as Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner raved about the work.

Maestro Marek Janowski leads a sensational cast — including star vocalists Lise Davidsen and Andreas Schager — on this new recording of Der Freischütz, the German Romantic opera par excellence. In the years after its 1821 premiere, the catchy melodies, picturesque charm and spooky scenes of Der Freischütz thrilled audiences throughout Europe. Janowski’s inspired reading lifts out the symphonic qualities of Carl Maria von Weber’s masterpiece, and makes clear why colleagues such as Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner raved about the work.

Die schönsten Blumen blühen im Verborgenen: Nach nur wenigen Monaten veröffentlicht das kleine Label Christophorus eine zweite CD mit einstimmiger Sakralmusik des Mittelalters, die man in jeder Hinsicht als gelungen – ja geradezu als vorbildlich – bezeichnen muss … Aus dem Titel geht nicht hervor, dass die von Bernhard von Clairvaux initiierte Choralreform der Zisterziensier den seit dem 10. Jahrhundert kodifizierten einstimmigen Kirchengesang (fälschlich Papst Gregor dem Großen zugeschrieben) in der Substanz nicht antastete. Vielmehr ging es den Zisterziensern insgesamt darum, das monastische Leben und auch die klösterliche Kunst von jenem überbordenden Luxus zu reinigen, wie er sich im Benediktinerkloster Cluny etabliert hatte. Im Falle des Chorals führte es die zu einer Vereinfachung der überkommenen Melodien. Allzu reiche Melismatik wurde getilgt und die Gesänge tonartlich vereinheitlicht. Bernhard selbst gab ein neues Messbuch in Auftrag. Responsorien daraus bilden die zentrale Substanz der CD. Aufgeteilt in sechs Teile ist darüber hinaus der berühmte Hymnus Jesus Dulcis Memoria zu hören, der wohl fälschlicherweise Bernhard zu geschrieben ist, aber dessen besondere Verehrung von Jesus eindrücklich thematisiert. Die responsorialen Gesänge werden rhythmisch sehr differenziert vorgetragen, die Hymnodie durch improvisierten organalen Gesang klanglich angereichert. Die Gesangskultur befindet sich insgesamt auf höchstem Niveau.

Der ferne Klang by Franz Schreker (1878-1934) premiered on August 18, 1912 at the Frankfurt Opera House. Schreker had already begun composing his first full-length opera in 1901, after the text he had written in just a few weeks. Now the work, which was initially considered impossible to perform, but which made Schreker suddenly famous, is returning to the location of its premiere for the first time after 1945. Almost half of all operas by the Austrian, who with one exception was both composer and librettist for all of his stage works, performed or premiered in Frankfurt. The Choir of the Oper Frankfurt and Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester perform under the direction of Sebastian Weigle.

The conductor György Vashegyi and his ensembles, the Orfeo Orchestra and the Purcell Choir, are fluent in various fields of baroque and classical music, with a particular predilection for French baroque opera. But one of their favourite lines of work is Lutheran sacred music, and a good example of this is this beautiful work, Wer ist der, so von Edom kömmt (“Who is this that comes from Edom?”), a period pasticcio with pieces by various composers. Graun (a composer at the court of Frederick II who was greatly admired by his contemporary colleagues), rubs shoulders here with Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as with a mysterious unknown, who wrote several of the most impressive passages in the work.

It was not until I picked up my violin and played a few movements of solo Bach, one winter's evening at home, that the essence of the composer finally permeated my being.

A Sloppy Piece of Work? This is how Franz Lehár described what was certainly his most successful work after The Merry Widow immediately after its composition. Today we know, however, that this was a gross misjudgment. Or if it was sloppy, then sloppy in a genial way. It bubbles over with catchy melodies, and dramaturgically it is in any case certainly the master's finest operetta: Der Graf von Luxemburg (The Count of Luxembourg). When the theater next-door to cpo in Osnabrück had the Graf on its program in 2011, it soon became clear that a stellar moment was involved here. The decision was quickly made to use this wonderful occasion for a production. The review of the operetta's premiere in Opernwelt shortly thereafter confirmed our decision: “The conductor Daniel Inbal passionately and elegantly brings out Lehár's intimate salon tone with the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, whose members play with the highest animation, carefully also in the postludes and transitional pieces, with what almost might be termed a fine operetta-philological feel. […] One feels empathy and great seriousness in the discerning treatment of the subject matter. Marco Vassalli, who is the spitting image of the young Johannes Heesters, fulfills the title hero's nonchalance requirement.”