Weber

Noble Tenderness. 'Ideal for expressing feelings and ideas of the most poetic kind' (in the opinion of Hector Berlioz), the clarinet takes center stage in this programme of chamber works ranging from Beethoven's youthful Trio in B-flat major op.11 via Weber's sparkling Grand duo concertant op.48 to Brahms’ autumnal Trio in A minor op.114. 'From the first note to the last, this was an explosively brilliant and beautifully controlled performance with artistic ensemble precision such as we rarely hear.' (Peninsula Reviews, concert review of op.48)

With this recording, alto saxophonist and bandleader Angelica Niescier and pianist and composer Florian Weber, both from Cologne Germany, place themselves at the centre of the New York City jazz scene. They are joined in the NYC Five by three acclaimed jazz musicians in great demand in the Big Apple: trumpeter Ralph Alessi, bassist Christopher Tordini and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. The quintet plays highly contemporary jazz with original tunes, distinctive arrangements, complex rhythms and expressive improvisations on the album, co-produced by Niescier.

Under the direction of Keno Weber, the Quilisma Jugendchor Springe presents the first complete recording of Gabriel Fauré’s (1845–1924) sacred works. After completing his academic education in 1865, Fauré was primarily active as a church musician and worked at the parish church „La Madeleine“ in Paris from 1877 to 1905.

Bassoonist Theo Plath is currently the talk of the town: After winning the 2018 German Music Competition, which awarded him this Primavera Edition prizewinner CD, he also impressed audiences at the 2019 ARD Music Competition.

200 years ago, on May 26th 1821, today's Berlin Concert Hall was inaugurated as “Königliches Schauspielhaus”. Destroyed as “Preußisches Staatstheater” during World War II, the building, located in eastern Berlin, was rebuilt during GDR times and reopened as “Konzerthaus” in 1984.

Maestro Marek Janowski leads a sensational cast — including star vocalists Lise Davidsen and Andreas Schager — on this new recording of Der Freischütz, the German Romantic opera par excellence. In the years after its 1821 premiere, the catchy melodies, picturesque charm and spooky scenes of Der Freischütz thrilled audiences throughout Europe. Janowski’s inspired reading lifts out the symphonic qualities of Carl Maria von Weber’s masterpiece, and makes clear why colleagues such as Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner raved about the work.

For the specific atmosphere of Oberon Michael Hofstetter found it crucial that the performance was played on the period instruments Weber composed for. In Giessen, he worked with four natural horns, natural trumpets, finely tuned trombones and not least flutes made of wood instead of metal. This produced an inexhaustible wealth of acoustic colours, enabling us sensually to experience what might really be meant by the concept of ‘German Romanticism’ on the musical level.

Carl Maria von Weber’s achievements as a composer were considerable and influential, demonstrating new possibilities in opera and orchestration, particularly in the handling of wind instruments. His attractive, lyrical style is ideal for the making of arrangements, and the impressive and beautifully proportioned Flute Sonata is a virtuoso masterpiece, as is the operatic Grand Duo Concertant. There is a feeling of solemnity in the G minor Trio, an unusual work with an enigma at its heart: the song-like Schäfer’s Klage or ‘Shepherd’s lament’ – the origins of which remain a source of conjecture.

Delving into black magic and folk culture, Weber created with Der Freischütz a new aesthetic that was to nourish the imaginative world of a whole generation of composers. René Jacobs has gone back to the sources of the initial project and here offers us a completely new reading of the very first German Romantic opera: the prologue initially conceived by the librettist is restored to its original place, giving due symbolic and structural weight to the character of the Hermit. A fascinating rediscovery!

"For sheer thrills, no one has yet outshone Kleiber’s swashbuckling 1973 Der Freischütz. True - for scrupulous textual honesty, there are strong rivals … but if you can hang in with his tempi (contrast Davis’s granite Philips version), Kleiber win hands down. The Staatskapelle is putty in his fingers. Janowitz’s melting Agathe, Schreier’s assertive Max, Mathis and Adam remain my dream cast.