Mrz 1995 Hamburg

Sole album from an early 70's German (from Hamburg I think) sextet Ikarus, whose reputation as a pioneer of jazz-rock is a bit over-done. Let's just say that they're a typical prog group with symphonic and jazz influences, a bit ala Crimson. Lead by multi-instrumentalist Jochen Petersen (guitars & winds), the group develops a wide soundscape in just four tracks (the shortest being well over 6 mins) that goes as far as electronic twiddling and string arrangements.

Ann Murray is one of the leading mezzo-sopranos on the international scene. (She is not related to the famous Canadian popular music singer with a similar name.) The Irish-born singer was educated at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where she studied with Frederic Cox. She bases her career in London, where she sings regularly at the English National Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. With the former she has sung Charlotte, Rosina, Beatrice, Xerxes, and Ariodante.

"Alive '95" (Anniversary Edition) will be released on September 29th, 2017 on earMUSIC. 25 years of Gamma Ray – 25 years of heavy metal from Hamburg: what started out in spring 1990 with the release of their debut album “Heading For Tomorrow” has achieved international fame a quarter of a century later. Tours around the globe with sold-out shows in the US, Canada, South America, Asia and the whole of Europe plus appearances at the most renowned festivals worldwide – vocalist/guitarist Kai Hansen’s band has long taken the world by storm.

George Frideric Handel (23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-born British Baroque composer famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Born in a family indifferent to music, Handel received critical training in Halle, Hamburg and Italy before settling in London (1712) as a naturalized British subject in 1727. By then he was strongly influenced by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

The Benda family has occupied an important and continuing place in music in Germany for some 250 years. The founder of the musical dynasty, Jan Jirí Benda, was born in 1686 in a village in Bohemia and combined the trades of weaver and musician. He married Dorota Brixi, a member of the Skalsko branch of a distinguished family of Czech musicians, and five of their six children became musicians, working in Germany…

The three compositions brought together on this CD demonstrates how Telemann could be relied on to compose not only church music for ordinary religious services, but also compose works for extraordinary sacred events and special occasions. Telemann’s dedicatory piece for the church in the St. Hiob-Hospital in Hamburg "Kommt, lasset uns anbeten" is scored for an ensemble that is noticeably smaller than those of his other compositions for the dedication of churches. This does not reflect lesser status, but owes to the small church space. As a result, the composition convinces the listener with its intimacy, while the ensemble limited to a few musicians contributes significantly to the exquisite impression made by this lovingly designed music displaying many beautiful details, above all in the melodic and harmonic spheres. By contrast, the stylistic modernity and wealth of imagination in Telemann’s sung poem 'Geschlagene Pauken, auf!' – which has been recorded here for the first time – makes us sit up and take notice.