Svam Orchester

Among Goethes dramas, Egmont stands practically unrivaled in its vibrant portrayal of protagonists faced with emotional anxieties and conflicts. For the convincing presentation of these states of heart and mind on the stage, the Prince of German Poets prescribed music for the key scenes as early as the works premiere. Now the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn under its new principal conductor Dirk Kaftan has set itself the task of performing Beethovens incidental music. The magnificent Matthias Brandt collaborated with the dramaturge Tilman Böttcher on this new version of the drama and renders his part with moving intensity.

The Mass in B Minor, hailed in 1818 as the “greatest musical composition of all times and all cultures” by its first publisher, Hans-Georg Nägeli of Zurich, is today revered as one of the greatest works in the history of classical music. Not only has the composition substantially shaped the contemporary relevance of Johann Sebastian Bach, but it also underpins his standing as a pre-eminent artist of universal appeal.

Bach im Fluss is a thematic collage of selected movements from cantatas and instrumental works compiled by Arthur Godel and Rudolf Lutz.

For once, a recitative is the focus of a cantata. In BWV 47, the opening chorus, two arias, and the final chorale are grouped around the central statement "Mankind is dirt, stench, earth and ashes," which can hardly be surpassed in clarity. It takes a soloist with a powerful voice and experience of life to get the message across credibly!

Michel Corrette belongs to that not so rare species of 18th century composers whose diligence was at times their undoing. He was so prolific that he was dismissed by some in posterity as a superficial prolific writer, a fate he shared with Vivaldi, for example. In his time, Corrette was simply a keyboard whiz: in Paris, he held various organist posts, among others in the service of the Jesuits, composed sacred and secular vocal and instrumental music, and directed a music school. Thus we owe him a number of excellent school works for various instruments. His musical passion, however, was for the queen of instruments: With his works, he was able to elicit a playful lightness from the organ, which is otherwise associated with powerful sounds, like hardly anyone else. In their new recording, Hannfried Lucke and the orchestra le phénix present the concertante character with virtuoso brilliance.