Gen ix

The highly anticipated first release from the most finely crafted Ring cycle of modern times, Die Walküre features a sensational cast of Anja Kampe, Jonas Kaufmann, René Pape, Nina Stemme, Mikhail Petrenko and Ekaterina Gubanova.

In the 18th century, "well-stocked" church music was a natural tradition throughout central Germany: church services were embellished along the ecclesiastical year with cantatas appropriate to the liturgy for the glory of God, but also for the joy and "spiritual edification" of the visitors. From this treasure of hitherto unknown Christmas music, four cantatas by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf are presented for the first time on this recording.

In the 18th century, "well-stocked" church music was a natural tradition throughout central Germany: church services were embellished along the ecclesiastical year with cantatas appropriate to the liturgy for the glory of God, but also for the joy and "spiritual edification" of the visitors. From this treasure of hitherto unknown Christmas music, four cantatas by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf are presented for the first time on this recording. Wolf worked as court kapellmeister in Weimar, and the fact that Goethe rejected him as "self-indulgent" should not prevent us from admiring him as a very important composer of the transition. Musically, Wolf was greatly influenced by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in the empfindsamer Stil and by the works of the Berlin Kapellmeister Carl Heinrich Graun. He was also a prolific composer whose works were received with admiration by his contemporaries. The four cantatas show elements of the early classical and sensitive styles; the cantata choruses are often homophonic and songlike, polyphonic sections rather rare. All the cantatas prove to be individually conceived works that testify to the composer's mastery. Beautiful sounding arias, the naturalness of their expression and the dramatic compression in the individual movements are still convincing today. At the same time, the cantatas bear witness to the high quality of Protestant church music in the period after Johann Sebastian Bach and illustrate the high value of music within the liturgy. Today they can be a welcome addition to the repertoire for the Christmas season.

For many, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is one of the classical works that cannot be avoided at Christmas time. Whether at home with the family or in concert, everyone has probably heard the Christmas Oratorio before. But this recording is something special: a recording with the great names of that time like the Dresdner Kreuzchor, Peter Schreier, Arleen Augér, Annelies Burmeister, Theo Adam, and Martin Flämig.

During his lifetime, Johann Pachelbel (1653– 1706) was best known as an organ composer. He wrote more than two hundred pieces for the instrument, both liturgical and secular, and explored most of the genres that existed at the time. He is considered to be the apex of the 17th century’s south German organ school and generally one of the most important composers of the middle Baroque.

Les Talens Lyriques, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Les Ambassadeurs, Orfeo Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Pulcinella, Pulcinella Orchestra, Il Pomo d'Oro, Ensemble Pulcinella, Alexis Kossenko, György Vashegyi, Riccardo Minasi

Guggenheim Fellow and ASCAP Award winning composer Elena Ruehr's six string quartets are a magnum opus in which echoes of Perotin, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Schoenberg and jazz can be found, although the musical language is purely Ruehr's own.