Godard German

Bohuslav Martinu - Ensemble Villa Musica - Chamber Music
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 248 MB | Full Artwork: 88 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Gold" # 304 0774-3 | Country/Year: Germany 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Early 20th Century

…Ensemble Villa Musica was founded in 1990 when a group of principal players from several of Germany's major orchestras assembled for master classes in Mainz under the state-sponsored Villa Musica foundation. The players decided to form the group with no limitations in repertory, but with a focus on neglected masterworks of the past. Most of the members retained their posts in orchestras and/or on the faculties of universities or music schools. The ensemble's leader since its founding has been clarinetist Ulf Rodenhäuser…

The musical traditions of the Arabic world are fused with jazz improvisation and European classical techniques by Lebanese-born oud player and composer Rabih Abou-Khalil. The CMJ New Music Report noted that Abou-Khalil has "consistently sought to create common ground between the Arab music mileau of his roots and the more global musical world of today." Down Beat praised Abou-Khalil's music as "a unique hybrid that successfully spans the world of traditional Arabic music and jazz." Although he learned to play the oud, a fretless, Lebanese lute, as a youngster, Abou-Khalil temporarily switched to the classical flute, which he studied at the Academy of Music after moving to Munich, Germany, during the Lebanese Civil War in 1978.

This movie is very funny indeed. Maybe it's an attempt at film noir with feministic background that has gone terribly wrong. Maybe the comic elements have been intended. Maybe it's a political statement with nods to Godard. The plot depicts a group of young woman that decide to kill their boyfriends if they insist on a relationship lasting longer than five days. Actually it's pretty entertaining, although all characters are talking and acting in a VERY weird way, resulting in some german reference books calling it a science fiction-movie set in the future, although there are no hints in the plot that justify such an assumption.

Jules Massenet - Stefan Irmer - Complete Solo Piano Works
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 249 MB | Full Artwork: 87 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Scene"# 618 1729-2 | Country/Year: Germany 2012
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

"…Stefan Irmer has clearly studied and truly learned this music. So often on a disc of rarely performed music one gets the feeling that the pianist is sight-reading the notes in order to make a recording of previously unrecorded music. Not so here. Irmer performs with wonderful clarity, variety of tone, panache, and commitment. He truly sells the music.
Natural recorded sound, capturing very well the 1901 Steinway used for the recording, rounds out a delightful disc." ~Fanfare

Georg Lickl - Calamus Ensemble - Wind Music: Cassation / Quintet / Sextets
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 217 MB | Full Artwork: 89 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Scene" # 603 0859-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1999
Genre: Classical | Style: Classicism, Wind Music

Johann Georg Lickl, also Ligkl, Hans-Georg Lickl, Hungarian: Lickl György (11 April 1769 – 12 May 1843) was an Austrian composer, organist, Kapellmeister in the main church of Pécs, and piano teacher. He wrote operas, one wind quintet, three string quartets, and served as a Kapellmeister at several churches. From 1807 until his death he was choirmaster at what is now Pécs. A large portion of his output is sacred music, including masses and requiems…

Franz Schreker - Irrelohe, Opera In 3 Acts
Beethoven Orchester Bonn / Stefan Blunier / Chor und Extrachor des Theater Bonn
SACD ISOs: 7,05 GB (Stereo + MCH DSD) | FLAC @ 24bit/88.2kHz: 2,09 GB | Full Artwork | 5% Rec. Info
Label/Cat#: MDG "Live" # 937 1687-6 | Country/Year: Germany 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Opera, Late Romantic

…The vivid MDG recording is slightly distanced, so the volume needs to be increased considerably for its fine qualities to become evident. Balances between voices and orchestra are excellent, and for those listening in multi-channel the surround speakers have been used to great effect for the off-stage brass, distant bells and chorus in the Act 3 cataclysmic immolation of Irrelohe castle. There is no applause or audience noise but the movement of singers on the stage is clearly defined with very few extraneous sounds being captured by the microphones. This is the latest addition to the Schrecker discography and will be welcomed by all admirers of the composer and can be confidently recommended.