Freiburger Gespräche

The Mass in B Minor, Bach's last completed vocal work as well as the climax of his creativity, reveals the overwhelming wealth of his compositional skills. In the history of music it ranks highly, as the "Montblanc of church music" (Franz Liszt) composed during Bach's time as cantor at the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Performed in this important composer's domain, the Mass in B Minor casted a spell over its listeners as the crowning glory of the Leipzig Bach Festival in 2013: Under the direction of Bach's successor Georg Christoph Biller, the St. Thomas Boys Choir and an outstanding soloist quintet perform with the prestigious Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, playing on authentic period instruments.

Biber & Muffat - Sonatas
Classical, Baroque | 1 CD | EAC | FLAC, CUE, LOG | Scans | 326 MB | RS
Recorded: Jan. & Apr. 1993, Church of Maria Minor, Utrecht, Netherlands
Released: 2002 [1994] | Label: DHM 05472 77844 2 | TT: 59:00
Freiburger Barockorchester Consort

This is wonderful music and the Freiburger Barockorchester Consort play it with a rhythmic vitality and elasticity that is at times toe-tappingly infectious. Their performances of the Biber sonatas have a verve and energy and combined with an admirable rhythmic flexibility, so that each of the varied short sections moves naturally into the next. Part of their secret is to give each little section its full due, irrespective of length. This makes for a lively but coherent performance of each sonata. And in the slower sections they are able to thin their tone down to a wonderful transparency. The Muffatt sonatas are rather more robust but here also, the group shines. (Robert Hugill, musicweb-international.com, 2003)

Marlis Petersen, Tom Randle, Victor Torres, Pietro Spagnoli, Magnus Staveland, Sunhae Im, Arttu Kataja, Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Nigel Lowery, Amir Hosseinpour Freiburger Barockorchester René Jacobs In the Summer of 2009, the British director Nigel Lowery and the Iranian choreographer Amir Hosseinpour brought to the stage of the Berlin State Opera “Unter den Linden”, with colour and full of humour, the fantastic and imaginative adventures of “Racing Roland”. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn, the composer’s most renowned opera during his lifetime,“Orlando Paladino”, was performed, a heroic-comical stage piece based on Ariost’s famous “Versepos”. Singers such as Marlis Petersen (Angelica), Tom Randle (Orlando), Alexandrina Pendatchanska (Alcina), Pietro Spagnoli (Rodomonte), Sunhae Im (Eurilla) and Victor Torres (Pasquale) performed under the musical direction of period-music specialist René Jacobs. The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra completed this high-class production giving the music a beautiful sound and lively swing.

More than two centuries after its creation, the emotional pull of this supreme opera remains absolutely intact. Dmitri Tcherniakov duly revisits the myth and makes the seducer of Seville a ‘man without qualities’, a cipher whose words have a hypnotic power over women. His words will disrupt the proprieties ruling the Commandatore’s family. His words are also what makes Don Juan such a subversive figure and the embodiment of one of the most powerful modern European myths. Leading the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra is one of the best Mozart conductors, Louis Langrée. Bo Skovhus portrays a dispirited Don Giovanni, old playboy and anti-hero. Kyle Ketelsen is his servant Leporello, currently a shoe-in for this rôle. The superb female trio is composed of Marlis Petersen (Donna Anna), Kristine Opolais (Elvira) and Kerstin Avemo (Zerlina).

Violinist Gottfried von der Goltz at the head of the Freiburger Barockorchester performs Corelli’s Concerti Grossi, true hits of the baroque repertoire.

After the success of Così fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro, René Jacobs' CD recording of this centrepiece of the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy offered us his reflections on Classical opera and garnered serious acclaim worldwide. Performed at the Innsbruck festival in August 2006 and filmed in Baden-Baden, this production is nourished by his thoughts on Don Giovanni as taboo-breaker but still respects Mozart's intentions as closely as possible.
In the documentary Looking for Don Giovanni, the director Nayo Titzin follows the creation of this production in the search for musical truth.