The Sound and the Fury - Masses & Chansons - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Freischütz counts as a milestone in the history of German opera. Created in 1821 under the impression of the liberation wars against Napoleons, the so-called National Opera expresses the Germans' desire for cultural identity. The librettist Johann Friedrich Kind temporally places the plot in the vicinity of the Thirty Years' War. Here people in a society are shaped by religious power struggles, war and outdated rituals. This shows the blurring of reality and an apparently perfect world. According to old custom, the huntsman Max is allowed to take his beloved Agathe as his wife and inherit a hereditary forester if his only test shot succeeds. But Kaspar tries to get Max into a pact with the devil. There should be seven free bullets for Max, who will not miss their goal in the Wolfschlucht... The premiere took place on December 8th, 2018 with the Essen Philharmonic under Tomaš Netopil in the Aalto Theater Essen. There will be another performance in April 2020.

Johannes Ockeghem developed his art from the contrast between different modes (toni Missa cuiusvis) and the contrapuntal linking together of identical melodies (Missa prolationem). Despite the complicated composition techniques applied, listeners are still fascinated by the overwhelming emotional experience of Ockeghem's music 500 years later.

Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl enable us to experience a historic moment in their live recording from the Ehrbar Saal in Vienna. On two original Ehrbar grand pianos, they play Johannes Brahms' original version of his 4th Symphony, as performed in the eponymous hall for friends of the composer in 1885. This testimony to a fading time is accompanied by another work of irreversible finality, Maurice Ravel's tone poem La Valse. Like no other dance, the waltz, which Ravel shatters to bits and Brahms only hints at in finale, defined the 19th century. A quasi volcanic orchestral dance by one of the best piano duos in the world!