Meine Seele

“Meine Seele weinte” ("My soul wept") is the title of the versatile mezzo-soprano Natalya Boeva's new CD featuring lieder spanning a wide variety of epochs, languages, and styles. It is a co-production of GENUIN and the Bayerischer Rundfunk. Together with her piano partner Polina Spirina, the winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Voice 2018 immerses herself in an exciting selection of works by the great lied composers Franz Schubert, Richard Strauss, and Karol Szymanowski and the contemporary Russian composers Alexander Labyrich and Dmitri Smirnov. Arguably no other genre can probe the most intimate human feelings of deep sorrow and quiet hope as profoundly as the lied. Natalya Boeva and Polina Spirina trace the most subtle emotions and the most imperceptible color shifts of these treasures with utmost precision – a moving interpretation of an extraordinary program!

Mostly written in her youth, Alma Mahler’s Lieder are rarely performed, yet each one is a musical gem that forms an important part of the Romantic song repertoire. This album is the first recording that includes all 17 of her songs. Like her personality, Alma’s songs are mysterious, complex and profound and take the listener on a kaleidoscopic voyage where different layers in text and music can simultaneously express blistering religious sentiments, overwhelming eroticism and profound tenderness. With a rich and velvety sound Elise Caluwaerts reveals the full depths of this music: refined details are portrayed with appealing intimacy, exuberant, roller coaster-like chromatic lines are savoured, and text is interpreted with mouth-watering expertise. She is joined on this symbiotic journey by star pianist Marianna Shirinyan who performs on a Steinway from 1899 that exactly mirrors the colourful and warm piano sound that Alma had in mind when composing these beautiful songs.

L'Arpa Festante's softly lyrical playing and Winter's shapely singing reveal abundant melodious charm and an appealing sense of pastoral instrumental colour…These excellent performances remind us how many of the finest Saxonian Baroque composers had close ties with the university town long before Bach turned up in 1723.

This impressive and extensive release, part of Profils Karl Richter Edition, presents Johann Sebastian Bachs Magnificat, as well as several of his Cantatas. In addition to Richters brilliant interpretations, the prominence of the soloists in these recordings is also outstanding, as well as the quality of the Munchener Bach Orchester. Initially, the ensemble bore the name ""Solistengemeinschaft der Bachwoche Ansbach"" and served as a home orchestra of Bach Week, which has been present in the Middle Franconian residence since 1948…

Bach's 200 existing cantatas (100 more have been lost) represent one of music history's most remarkable achievements. The first volume in Erato's ambitious but much-needed traversal of the complete canon contains nine cantatas from Bach's early career. Except for "Christ lag in Todesbanden," these are lesser-known works, yet that doesn't mean they are of lesser quality. Here are some of Bach's most compelling choruses, accompanied by colorful and ingenious instrumental writing. Highlights abound, including the appendices that reproduce Bach's revised versions of cantatas 4 and 21. The choral singing is excellent: sensitive and agile, with unforced tone.

Throughout most of his professional life, Johann Sebastian Bach composed cantatas for use at church services: it is thought that he probably wrote at least 300 such works. Some 200 of these are still extant, of which the earliest hail from Bach's time as organist in Arnstadt (1703-07) and the last were composed only a year or two before his death in 1750. In 1995, when Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan began the monumental journey of recording the cantatas, they decided to follow in Bach's footsteps.