Viertel

1918 marked the end of the First World War and thus the end of an era. It was the end of the so-called fin de siècle (the end of the 19th century). Important culture carriers such as Klimt, Schiele, Otto Wagner and Debussy died in 1918. A young Hendrik Andriessen composed the dramatic organ work Fête-Dieu. Dramatic, because despite the festive title, this was a plea with which the young composer expressed his condolences to the "admired and beloved cathedrals of France". At the same time, this plea held a promise for the future, because it was a new experimental sound that Andriessen made here. The rest of the program examines the "new ways" of music and art of the 20th century.

Tom Wade, Detective bei der Major Crimes Unit, dem Dezernat für Schwerkriminalität, hat verdeckt mit dem FBI zusammengearbeitet und sieben seiner Kollegen der Korruption überführt – eine Entscheidung, die zu seiner Verbannung führt. Als gewöhnlicher Streifenpolizisten muss er nun im gefährlichsten Viertel von King City eine Stadtteilwache übernehmen: ohne jegliche Unterstützung und mit nur geringer Lebenserwartung…

Paul von Klenau's (1883-1946) grandiose Ninth Symphony in eight movements was composed in Copenhagen 1945 as his last major work; an extraordinary fusion of a Requiem with Latin text and a traditional symphony for orchestra, choir and four soloists. The manuscript then lay unknown for more than fifty years until it appeared in the 2001 discovery of a large collection of Klenau manuscripts in Vienna, and not until March 2014 after a thorough editing by The Royal Library in Copenhagen did it receive its first performance by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Schønwandt. This world premiere recording presents the full symphony; a magnificent opus of both tonal, atonal and even twelve-tone passages, very far removed from the style that predominated in the post-Nielsen Danish music of the 1940s.

“variation5” is the title of the wind quintet’s eponymous debut album – and variation5 is an ensemble of five very different characters, musicians who as winners of first prize in the ARD Music Competition are united by one thing: rather than cling to traditional performance practice and repertoire, they create new and exciting programmes and present them in their own cheeky, youthful, laid-back manner. This first joint album of theirs gives the five musicians the chance to present modern 20th-century classics for wind ensemble. They push atonal preconceptions to one side: the works are catchy and offer auditory variety as well as a relaxed balance of sound such as has rarely if ever been heard before.

n October 2014, Michael Gielen issued a press release announcing that he had been forced to end his conducting activities for health reasons. On this occasion, and also with his 90th birthday in July 2017 in mind, it is time to listen to the different phases of a long conducting career. The Michael Gielen Edition offers this opportunity. It comprises several volumes of varying size, dedicated to individual composers or major historical periods. The recordings in this sixth volume have all been taken from the SWR s Baden-Baden archive.