Matthias Goerne - Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo; October - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

In the autumn of 1726 Bach embarked on a series of solo and dialogue cantatas for the first time, in which the virtuoso skills of individual soloists were given pride of place rather than a choir. The poet of this impressive series of solo and dialogue cantatas has recently been identified as the Leipzig theology student Christoph Birkmann (1703-1771), later a pastor in Nuremberg. He reported that he Inchdiligently kept company with the great master, Herr Director Bach, and his choir, and also attended the Collegia Musica in the winterInch. Among the 'Ich' cantatas of late autumn and winter 1726/27 are the two works recorded here, which have been regarded ever since as pearls of Bach's oeuvre. - Twenty five years after harmonia mundi issued the solo cantatas for bass with Peter Kooj, Collegium Vocale and Philippe Herreweghe, Matthias Goerne, together with Freiburg Baroque, presents two cantatas intimately linked to the celebration of the Lutheran Reformation, as we celebrate it's 500th anniversary. The recording has had a long period of fruition, what with Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, and soon Wagner, but this new disc should make it's own mark on the discography, just as permanently as it's illustrious predecessor.

Dmitri Hvorostovsky's fourth on Ondine features a program of rarely recorded sonnets by Dmitri Shostakovich and Franz Liszt. Hvorostovsky is accompanied by his longtime duo partner, the Estonian pianist Ivari Ilja. Shostakovich's sonnets, considered one of the achievements of contemporary Russian vocal music, were composed as his health worsened and are filled wtih ruminations on mortality. Liszt's sonnets are based on love poems by the Italian Renaissance write Petrarch. Both Hvorostovsky and Ilja brin great empathy to these compositions, matching the contemplative nature of both with quietly powerful and confident performances.

This product is an authorized manufactured on demand CD-R