Hekate - Tempeltanze - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Hekate - Sonnentanz [COMPACT DISCS] Digipack Packaging date 11/15/2011

After their prize-winning Mendelssohn symphonies cycle and acclaimed Mozart symphonies album, the NDR Radiophilharmonie and it's chief conductor Andrew Manze now present Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies. While Beethoven's Fifth is arguably the most famous symphony in the history of music, the Seventh counts as one of the most rhythmically-advanced pieces of nineteenth-century music; an Inchapotheosis of danceInch, to quote Richard Wagner. Both works display Beethoven's mastery of and audacious approach to musical form as well as the richness of his melodic invention, and are generally praised as paragons of symphonic composition. Andrew Manze brings his experience in the field of historically informed performance to the polished symphonic sound of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, providing an ambience that fits these early nineteenth-century works like a glove.

2018 . In Greek mythology, Hekate is the goddess of magic, mediating between the realms of life and death. Hekate, the band, was formed in 1991 and is one of the foremost protagonists of German neofolk. Over the course of five albums, the group has combined folk, medieval and classical music with striking percussion and electronic elements to create a distinctly individual style, which reaches it's temporary climax on their sixth record Totentanz (Inchdance of deathInch). Seven years after the of Die Welt der dunklen Gärten (Inchthe world of dark gardensInch), Hekate delivers it's most refined compositions to date, playing both traditional, catchy neofolk tunes and hypnotic tracks. In the process, the group manages to recall the atmosphere of early 90's apocalyptic folk without coming across as anachronistic. Enhanced by floating synthesizer and drum arrangements, the music itself reflects the lyrical themes of Totentanz dealing with our own mortality in the sense of Inchmemento moriInch. In this context, Hekate plays out it's fondness for Romanticism with an urgent interpretation of Prussian poet Joseph von Eichendorff's InchMondnachtInch (Inchmoon nightInch), and an album cover graced with a (so-far unpublished) painting of the same name by German symbolist and art nouveau artist Franz Stassen. Just as exclusive the design of the album's book edition features unpublished ink drawings from the series InchApokalyptische LandschaftenInch (Inchapocalyptic landscapesInch) by Hermann Wöhler, a painter influenced by magic realism who worked in secret and whose paintings the art community is only now discovering years after his passing.