Der Kalziumphosphatstein

Terry Goodkind zieht die Hörer in seinen Bann und lässt sie nicht wieder los! Eine phänomenale Saga von unendlichem Einfallsreichtum! Wer viel Fantasy hört und liest, dem kommt mit der Zeit so Einiges ins Haus. Denjenigen ist zu sagen, dass sie sich vielleicht daran gewöhnen müssen, mit Allerweltsnamen für die einzelenen Charaktere konfrontiert zu werden und das es gleich ohne große Vorgeschichte zur Sache geht. Genau darin liegt aber auch der sagenhafte Vorteil der Fantasy von Terry Goodkind. Der Zuhörer steht dem Helden in nichts nach, wenn es darum geht, die Entwicklung der Geschehnisse zu verfolgen oder die Länder und Bräuche des Epos zu erkunden…

Zehn Jahre lang schrieb Marcel Proust an seinem grandiosen und zeitlosen Meisterwerk "Auf der Suche nach der verlorenen Zeit". Auf über 4000 Seiten entfaltet er eine ganze Welt im Verstreichen ihrer Zeit: das Drama von Liebe und Eifersucht, die Intrigen der Gesellschaften in den Pariser Salons, Gedanken über Literatur, Musik und Kunst, die Poesie der Landschaft und den Geschmack der Erinnerung. Acht Jahre lang las Peter Matic jeden Winter mehrere Wochen lang im Studio des Rundfunks Berlin-Brandenburg Prousts Roman als vollständige, ungekürzte Lesung. Wort für Wort, Zeile für Zeile. Seine kluge, nuancierte Interpretation bringt alle Facetten des vielschichtigen Werks zum glänzen. Ein Hörbuch, das nicht seinesgleichen findet.

Hamburg marked an important year in its history in 1762. The city’s large St. Michael’s Church had been destroyed by fire in 1760, and two years later the magnificent new Baroque structure (as yet without a tower) was dedicated. This event was celebrated as an official state ceremony, and of course Georg Philipp Telemann, the city’s music director, who by then was eighty-one years old, had to supply the music for it.

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.

The Fluyten Lust-hof is the most extensive collection of pieces for a wind instrument ever created. During the period of transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque, the bell expert and recorder virtuoso, Jacob van Eyck, blind from birth, dictated his approximately 150 diminutions of well-known church and folk melodies in order that they could be published.

This remastering comes from the original analogue tapes and has been transferred at high resolution digital quality to capture the very best sound from the tapes. In consultation with the original engineer Chris Parker, we have slightly adjusted the balance of the Trio (in Act 3) to reflect the quality of sound that was desired but not achieved at the time of recording. This recording was originally made as a mono recording by Douglas Larter, with a stereo test version engineered by Chris Parker. It is this stereo test version which has been used for this remastering. Despite the early experimental nature of this new ‘stereo’ technology, this recording is captured in astonishingly vivid sound and is a testament to the experience, understanding and skill of both the musicians and engineers of the time.’ Simon Gibson, Remastering Engineer at Abbey Road Studios.

Maurice Maeterlinck completed his play The Blue Bird ("L’Oiseau bleu") in 1908. Several of his previous works had proved popular as operatic subjects (Pelléas et Mélisande and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue) so it's no wonder that composers jumped at the opportunity to set his latest creation to music.French composer Albert Wolff based an opera on the story, which premiered at the New York Met but subsequently fell into oblivion. Prior to that, in 1912, Max Reinhardt adapted it as a Christmas play and staged a production in Berlin, inviting no less a person than Engelbert Humperdinck to write the incidental music for it. The music was never published, but Steffen Tast eventually located the score and salvaged it for us all to enjoy. A sweet story and newly discovered music by Humperdinck that's sweeter still? Truly a recipe for a fairy-tale ending!

Maurice Maeterlinck completed his play The Blue Bird ("L’Oiseau bleu") in 1908. Several of his previous works had proved popular as operatic subjects (Pelléas et Mélisande and Ariane et Barbe-Bleue) so it's no wonder that composers jumped at the opportunity to set his latest creation to music.French composer Albert Wolff based an opera on the story, which premiered at the New York Met but subsequently fell into oblivion. Prior to that, in 1912, Max Reinhardt adapted it as a Christmas play and staged a production in Berlin, inviting no less a person than Engelbert Humperdinck to write the incidental music for it. The music was never published, but Steffen Tast eventually located the score and salvaged it for us all to enjoy. A sweet story and newly discovered music by Humperdinck that's sweeter still? Truly a recipe for a fairy-tale ending!

The Ensemble Hofkapelle München under the direction of expert Rüdiger Lotter presents the first excellent and historically informed recording of the opera "Der Stein der Weisen oder: die Zauberinsel". The opera is regarded as the forerunner of W. A. Mozart's celebrated masterpiece "The Magic Flute", with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, who would later also write the libretto for "The Magic Flute".

Das Ensemble Hofkapelle München unter der Leitung von Experte Rüdiger Lotter präsentiert die erste exzellente und historisch fundierte Einspielung der Oper "Der Stein der Weisen oder: die Zauberinsel". Die Oper gilt als Vorläufer von W.A. Mozarts gefeiertem Meisterwerk "Die Zauberflöte", mit einem Libretto von Emanuel Schikaneder, der später auch das Libretto für "Die Zauberflöte" schreiben sollte. Diese Oper ist nicht von einem, sondern von gleich vier Komponisten geschrieben worden, darunter Mozart.