Yoga Ralf Bauer

With the Latvian Festival Orchestra Riga directed by Karsten Januschke, German bass Andreas Bauer Kanabas unleashes passions of love, treason and despair in a well-chosen programme of arias. At the point of deception, the soul not only experiences the greatest disappointment, but also clarity and truthfulness. Andreas Bauer Kanabas traces these moments of deep longing and melancholy with interpretations that are rooted in great emotional power.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion is widely recognised as one of the greatest masterpieces in Western sacred music. With its double orchestra and chorus this is a work of enormous proportions in every sense, and Bach was extremely resourceful in treading a fine line between creating the almost operatic spectacle valued by the secular authorities in Leipzig, and the elevated religious atmosphere sought by the clergy. This inspired mix of moving drama and theological discourse led Leonard Bernstein to declare that ‘there is nothing like it in all of music’.

It is remarkable that Theodora, this gem of an Oratorio, whose musical quality Handel himself considered to be particularly outstanding, seems to be largely unknown to professional musicians and the expert audience. This is even more astonishing as this masterpiece (in the versions of its first performance lasting nearly three hours) is definitely an absolute highlight of Handel’s creative work, not least because of its splendidly differentiated orchestration and the psychologically sensitive presentation of its protagonists.

The Vowel- ensemble Frankfurt must certainly be invited to the Top ensembles in the choral field can be counted. Besides perfect intonation, homogeneous choir sound and very good text processing constancy touches particularly pleasantly a beautiful, round, soft and completely natural- …light-sounding phrasing.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion is, along with the St Matthew Passion, without doubt one of the most important works he ever composed. It established a new tradition for Good Friday vespers in Leipzig, and with sublime skill Bach managed to retain a spirit of church worship while creating an almost operatic narrative that movingly depicts Christ’s trial, death, and ultimate apotheosis. Bach’s numerous revisions always demand a certain amount of scholarly decision-making, and this recording of the St John Passion uses the final 1749 version that not only draws on and reinforces the best of Bach’s original concept, but incorporates the additional movements of the 1725 version.

Ralf Hildenbeutel (born March 6, 1969 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German composer and producer. He was decisive role in the formation of musical style trance. Together with A.C. Boutsen (Matthias Hoffmann) and Stevie B-Zet (Steffen Britzke) he belonged to the permanent staff of the record label Eye Q Records. The Scene Magazine Front Page wrote in 1995, about 90% of all trance releases have the typical Q-Eye style as a template. Between 1991 and 1998 produced Ralf Hildenbeutel all publications of the star DJs Sven Väth. His main solo project was Earth Nation, the first techno act that occurred at parties with live percussion…

Marek Janowski presents his first purely-orchestral Schubert recording, together with the Dresdner Philharmonie, performing the composer’s two final, groundbreaking and most famous symphonies. While the two movements of the “Unfinished” symphony in B Minor reach a level of perfection despite the work’s apparent incompleteness, Robert Schumann praised the “Great” symphony in C Major for its “heavenly length”. Janowski’s interpretation combines a sense of tradition with vitality and intensity.

From the face of it, Aulis Sallinen's interest in composing chamber music drops off precipitously in the mid-'80s as his symphonies and operas began to take hold in the international market. This would be a pity if it were entirely true, as it was through the chamber music medium that Sallinen made his initial reputation through such masterpieces as the String Quartets No. 3 ("Some Aspects of Peltoniemi Hintrik's Funeral March"), No. 4 ("Quiet Songs"), and the cello solo Elegy for Sebastian Knight. CPO's Aulis Sallinen: Chamber Musics III, IV, V, performed by members of the Virtuosi di Kuhmo under the general direction of pianist Ralf Gothóni, makes clear that Sallinen's later chamber music is not so much absent as it is in hiding, disguised as concertante works for soloist and string orchestra.