Various Artists - Affinities - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

Following a series of military and economic defeats in the early 19th century, an enterprising group of teachers, pastors and writers set about to revive the Danish national spirit. Out of this environment the unique Danish tradition of the InchfolkehøjskoleInch (InchFolk High SchoolInch) was born. The lofty goal of these institutions was to provide life-long popular education, a sense of national pride and civic responsibility for the common person. The movement's chief architect, the poet, philosopher, and pastor, N. F. S. Grundtvig knew full well the value of singing for creating a sense of community, so naturally, a new demand for Danish songs was created. In 1894, the first Højskolesangbogen (High School Songbook) was published. A substantial revised edition was published in 1922, including many melodies by the famous composer Carl Nielsen. Today the collection includes 572 songs with 2.4 million copies sold and is the most popular songbook in the country to this day. The natural choice for performing this Treasury of Danish Song is, the internationally acclaimed Danish National Vocal Ensemble, the elite choir of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). With two Grammy nominations and the prestigious German ECHO Award for the album The Nightingale, (recorded with recorder virtuoso Michala Petri), the French Diapason d'Or de l'année, in addition to a host of other national and international accolades, their luminous sound provides the perfect frame for these simple, heartfelt expressions of the Danish soul.

The fourth and final recording of Agnieszka Budzinska-Bennett's InchMare BalticumInch project with and about music from the Baltic region, the first of which has already received the coveted ICMA, is perhaps the most beautiful. One-part melodies sung by four women in their own rhythm and yet in complete unison transport us to the bygone world of the Middle Ages. Solo songs bring us even closer to that time. For instance, when - this is just one example - Lorenza Donadini as Mary laments the death of Jesus, we hear the grief of a living mother over the death of her own child. What a pity that this excursion into the past lasts only 79 minutes!

When in 1928 the great organ in the Bremen InchGlockeInch was handed over to the concert public, the critics were full of praise for the successful symbiosis of the excellent instrument from the renowned Sauer workshop and the outstanding acoustics of the concert hall. The organ has survived war and destruction almost unscathed and was thoroughly restored a few years ago after an extended Sleeping Beauty sleep. Now this instrument, which is uniquely preserved in Germany, has been honored for the first time on Super Audio album and shows that it is capable of Inchperfectly reproducing the literature of past times as well as that of the present.Inch This is what was written in the handover report, and four organists will be performing this virtuoso sound test Stephan Leuthold, Felix Mende, David Schollmeyer and Lea Suter will be playing music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Maurice Duruflé. And indeed, Sauer also built typical stops into his ultra-modern instrument based on models from Praetorius and Silbermann, so that the InchOld MastersInch can be played appropriately. The four-manual instrument is equipped with a pneumatic action - self-evident for the time of it's construction, a rare specialty for connoisseurs of historical performance practice today. However, the instrument can show it's great strength in the floating, multi-layered sound colors, for example in Mario Enrico Bossi's InchTheme and VariationsInch op. 115, or in the works of Joseph Jongen, which were clearly influenced by French Impressionism. Liszt's InchConsolationInch experiences an enraptured, almost world-forgotten mood through the registration, which leads the roaring finale of Vierne's Organ Symphony No. 6 to a furious conclusion. Details 1. Prelude and Fugue Op. 35, 1 E minor~Prelude 2. Prelude and Fugue Op. 35, 1 E minor~Fugue 3. Theme and Variations Op. 115 4. Consolation D flat