Mrz 1995 Hamburg

Pachelbel - Canon & Gigue; Bach, Handel, Vivaldi
Musica Antiqua Köln - Reinhard Goebel
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 371 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Archiv Produktion # 447 285-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1995, 1983
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

"…As it stands, this is an issue that can be warmly recommended musically and technically without reservation—except perhaps to those who hanker after rich Romantic tone and find the characteristic sound of baroque violins wiry. Even they, however, could not fail to be stirred by the enormous vitality of these performances: the word 'routine' simply doesn't seem to exist in the vocabulary of this splendid team of virtuosi. Its Vivaldi, which brings home the point that the Folies d'Espagne was (as its name implies) originally a frenzied dance, is in itself worth getting the disc for; 'the' Pachelbel canon played in the proper style might wean slush-wallowers away from the soupiness in which it is usually drenched; but the Handel trio sonata (incorporating themes from various stage works) is also a delight; and the glorious sense of controlled freedom which permeates the Bach, meticulously phrased and stylishly ornamented, uplifts the spirit." ~Grammophone

Historia von D. Johann Fausten is an opera by the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998) in three acts, with introduction and epilogue to the German libretto by Jörg Morgener (Jürgen Köchel) and Alfred Schnittke after the anonymous prose book of the same name (published by Johannes Spies in 1587). Wikipedia.

A fifteen track, full digitally recorded CD; including well-known overtures from the great composers of the world; such as Borodin, Verdi,Rossini, Bizet, Mozart, Beethoven, Gluck and Weber.

The rock’n’roll music of the mid-1950s encouraged performers to lose their inhibitions, but with the exception of his close friend Screaming Lord Sutch, no one in the UK was wilder or more outrageous than Freddie Fingers Lee. “If I wasn’t crazy when I joined Sutch’s band, I certainly was when I left,” he used to say. Lee was an extrovert rock’n’roll pianist and songwriter whose songs were recorded by Charlie Gracie and Carl Mann and he is best known for his autobiographical composition “One-Eyed Boogie Boy”…

SLAPP HAPPY was a multinational (specifically British/German) Avant-garde pop group consisting of Anthony MOORE (keyboards), Peter BLEGVAD (guitar) and Dagmar KRAUSE (vocals). SLAPP HAPPY was formed in 1972 in Hamburg, Germany by British composer Anthony MOORE. At the time he was recording for Polydor, but was continually frustrated by the more popular direction the label was trying to woe his music. His music was sited as not commercial enough. Venting this frustration he proposed the formation of a pop group with his girlfriend (Dagmar KRAUSE) from Hamburg and an American friend Peter BLEGVAD. So Slapp happy was born. After much disputes and bantering BLEGVAD and MOORE convinced Krause of their inabilities to sing and she step up as their sing. And to this day remains as one of the distinctive characteristics surrounding the band.

La Stravaganza, under their director/harpsichordist Siegbert Rampe, are a Hamburg-based ensemble. Their performances of the six Brandenburg Concertos, together with the Triple Concerto in A minor (BWV 1 044), and a version of the Fifth Brandenburg which predates by about three years Bach's presentation copy to the Margrave, provide stimulating and mainly satisfying listening. It is perhaps a pity that the earlier version of the First Concerto was omitted from the recording, since it reveals significant textual variants from the Brandenburg, above all the scoring of the second of the two Trios.

The concept of The Romantic Piano Concerto series was born at a lunch meeting between Hyperion and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra sometime in 1990. A few months later tentative plans had been made for three recordings, and the first volume, of concertos by Moszkowski and Paderewski, was recorded in June 1991. In our wildest dreams, none of us involved then could ever have imagined that the series would still be going strong twenty years later, and with fifty volumes to its credit.

Richard Wagner - Tannhäuser (Highlights/Höhepunkte)
Chor und Orchester der Bayreuther Festspiele / Wolfgang Sawallisch
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 373 MB | Full Artwork: 28 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Philips "Wagner Edition" # 446 620-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1995, 1963
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Opera

Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. (…) When he debuted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus conducting Tristan und Isolde in 1957, he was the youngest conductor ever to appear there. (…) For thirty years, he was closely associated with musical events in Munich. Here he conducted practically all of the major Richard Strauss operas, Salome being the sole exception. He also conducted 32 complete Richard Wagner Ring des Nibelungen cycles and is credited with nearly 1200 opera performances in the city alone…