The chemistry between tradition and innovation powered Sir Simon Rattle’s relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker, above all during his time as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director (2002-2018). As the successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado, his mission was to take this pre-eminent musical institution into the 21st century. “What Rattle has brought … is a new spirit of adventure,” declared The Times in 2006, and later looked back on the “exhilarating, epoch-hopping eclecticism of Simon Rattle’s era in Berlin”. Through all this Rattle preserved the orchestra’s distinctive sonority, notable, in the words of the New York Times, for its “sheer grandeur … and rich, red-blooded warmth”. He first conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, and the recordings in this 45CD box span the years from 1994 to 2012. Very much reflecting Rattle’s vision for the orchestra, the symphonic, choral and operatic works range from pillars of Austro-German Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism through French, Russian and Czech repertoire to showcases for contemporary contemporary composers from around the world – and even a film soundtrack. As Rattle said at the end of his tenure in Berlin: “Music is for everybody, and we’ve all believed this.”

Leben is the third studio album by German electronic musician, composer and producer Christopher von Deylen under his Schiller alias. It features collaborations with renowned vocalists such as Sarah Brightman, Maya Saban, Peter Heppner and Kim Sanders.

Antonio Rosetti, who was almost always mentioned in the same breath as Mozart and Haydn by his contemporaries, composed over 40 symphonies, about six dozen solo concertos and chamber music and a considerable number of sacred vocal works. Ranked amongst his greatest achievements in the latter genre are the large-scale passion oratorio "Jesus in Gethsemane" and the "Hallelujah" cantata. Both show the virtuoso mastery of a whole array of musical techniques. Thanks to their melodic ingenuity, sophisticated harmony, a distinctive sense of proportion and the, as always, accomplished manipulation of orchestral tones, both of these late works are counted among Rosetti's most meaningful creations. There is no better conductor for this disc of Rosseti masterpieces than Johannes Moesus who is president of the International Rosetti Society.

Heart is a studio album by French singer Amanda Lear, first released in 2001 by Le Marais Prod. The album was recorded in 2001 at Barouf Studio and Studio Wolf with French producers FX Costello and Laurent Wolf, and was Lear's first album ever to be recorded entirely in France. It was also her first studio release of new material in six years, since 1995's Alter Ego. In an interview, the singer explained that the long gap resulted from her lack of enthusiasm after numerous budget compilations started to appear on the market without her consent. She also revealed that on this album she was given more artistic freedom than before, and decided to include more melodic and sentimental songs. Lear stated that Heart was the album "she has always wanted to make" and that originally, she planned to called it Phoenix.

For its 30th anniversary this extremely beautiful box presents LACRIMOSA from all sides! Over three CDs, with a total playing time of three hours and forty minutes, the legendary 25th anniversary concert immerses the listener in LACRIMOSA's incomparable live atmosphere.

Next to Embryo, Kraan are among those German groups who include psychedelic, sometimes ethnic elements to their distinctive, innovative jazz rock. At the beginning of their career, started in 1970, Kraan free form jazz rock was really into jam sessions, totally improvised, mainly instrumental (featuring sax sections and many guitar/bass solos). Their self title album was experimented with ethnic, psychedelic/acid tastes and discreet electronic manipulations. Since their debut album and with their two following "Wintrup", "Andy Nogger" the band has demonstrated with interest, dynamism and humour how can we make fusion / jazz with addition of influences from everywhere. Really imaginative, inspired and technical these albums provide something new and amazing: an absolute trippy ethnic jazz rock. This particular facet of the Kraan music culminates with their masterwork "Live" (1975)…

Although his name might not rate very highly on the recognition meter even of classical music buffs, Franz Tunder was a consequential entity in the early history of the German Baroque. Tunder served as organist at the Marienkirche in Lübeck from 1641 to his death in 1667, and during that time instituted the Abendmusiken, the first series of public concerts to take place in Germany. Seventeen vocal "concertos" exist from Tunder's pen and they were created for these special events; little more than half of them appear on this generous and well-performed CPO disc, Franz Tunder: Concerti. Conductor Hermann Max leads Das Kleine Konzert and the singing group Rheinische Kantorei in 10 concerti, which uses a variety of singers in frontline combinations. Tunder must have had some good basses in his chorus, as they have most of the hardest music in the Concerti, and five of these ten works are sung by bass or basses alone. Both men used here, Ekkehard Abele and Yoshitaka Ogasawara, do an excellent job. The string parts are crisp and do not dawdle, and Max never allows the music to get too grandiose, wisely keeping it within the boundaries of the chamber idiom to which it belongs. The music is never ornately busy and has a relaxed, soothing effect.

In this concert/motion picture starring the New Romantic Pop stars, Doctor Duran (actor Milo O'Shea) the evil character in the cult film 'Barbarella' returns to earth, crash landing his time machine directly underneath a giant stadium in Oakland, California. He is bent upon doing battle with the five imposters above him (the band) who have stolen his name. The evil doctor sends out his henchmen to destroy them as they perform to a packed stadium. Duran Duran continues to perform throughout, as much chaos ensues around them. Duran Duran are captured at their musical best in Arena by award winning director, Russell Mulcahy, who was to hone his skills working on music promos through the 80's. Also includes the Making Of Arena documentary which opens the lid on the creative processes involved with making Arena.

5CD Box Set The Anniversary Edition by James Last was released in 2009 by Universal Music GmbH. James Last was a German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. Initially a jazz bassist, his trademark "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom, with 65 of his albums reaching the charts in the UK alone. Last is reported to have sold an estimated 200 million albums worldwide in his lifetime, of which 80 million were sold by 1973 - and won numerous awards including 200 gold and 14 platinum discs in Germany, the International MIDEM Prize at MIDEM in 1969, and West Germany's highest civilian award, the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1978. Last's trademark sound employed big band arrangements of well-known tunes with a jaunty dance beat, often heavy on bass and brass.

The greatest strength of Oehms Classics' live recording of the Hamburg Staatsoper 2005 production of Mathis der Maler is the supple and dramatic conducting of Simone Young, the Australian general manager of the company. The score contains some of Hindemith's most overtly romantic and emotionally expressive music, as well as some extended passages that sound like academic note-spinning. Young is remarkably successful in accentuating the score's moments of sensuality, such as the opening "Concert of Angels," and manages to keep the dramatic momentum up during the more pedestrian passages. The sound is full, clean, and well balanced for a live opera performance.

On this CD for CPO the United Continuo Ensemble together with the tenor Jan Kobow presents secular songs and sacred arias by Johann Krieger taken from his collection Neue musicalische Ergätzlichkeit. Krieger’s musical language ranges from simple choral pieces through to virtuoso coloratura songs. We have combined these fascinating and multifaceted pieces with sonatas from Philipp Friedrich Buchner’s Plectrum Musicum.

Raritäten (1994-2012) is a compilation available exclusively on the Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer streaming platforms. It contains the b-sides available on the Rammstein's singles released between 1994 and 2012.
The album was originally called "Rare tracks 1994-2012". Then, a few years after the release of "XXI (The Vinyl Box Set)", it was renamed "Raritäten (1994-2012)", because the box set contains a vinyl called "Raritäten" ("rarities" in English). Be careful though, the two tracklists are different.

Alternately psychedelic, progressive, and hard rock-styled, the eclectic German band Grobschnitt became one of the most popular live acts in German history. The group recorded several lauded albums in the 1970s, moving between styles before switching to more mainstream pop and rock in the 1980s. Meanwhile, in part thanks to drummer Joachim Ehrig, the group added touches of absurdist humor to their records and live shows…

The term “Hanseatic” in this program titled Festive Hanseatic Music originates from the word Hansa, which simply means a company of merchants trading overseas. The selections here were mostly composed during the waning years of the so-called Hanseatic league–an alliance of primarily prosperous northern European cities that began in the 13th century and ended in the 17th. While commerce for the Hanseatic league may have been on the decline during this period, the quality of the works offered on this new CPO CD clearly gives the impression that its musical life was thriving.

Emma Kirkby, doyenne of the Early Music scene, here shows that she's just as comfortable in music of a more recent vintage. Amy Beach was a woman ahead of her time, performing as solo pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra by the age of 18. The same year (1885), she married Henry Beach and, no longer able to perform publicly (it would have gone against her social status), she instead settled down to composing. And delightful stuff it is, too, as Kirkby and friends demonstrate in this charming recital. A number of the songs add violin, cello, or both to the piano and voice combination. "Ecstasy," for instance, has a most effective violin part that is an ideal foil to the purity of Kirkby's voice. Other highlights include the Schumannesque Browning Songs and the amiable Shakespeare Songs (the last of which, "Fairy Lullaby," is irresistible). The final item here, "Elle et moi," is an upbeat little number that suits Kirkby's lithe soprano to perfection. Occasionally, in some of the more lushly textured songs, such as "A Mirage" and "Stella Viatoris," perhaps a fuller voice would have been preferable, but then sample "Chanson d'amour" (written when Beach was only 21 and with a wonderful cello part in addition to the piano) and try to imagine it being better sung. The purely instrumental items are played with unfailing sensitivity and elegance. The Romance is straight out of the salon, while the much later Piano Trio (though actually based on early material) packs plenty of emotion and variety into its 14 minutes. The recording is exemplary, as are the concise notes and texts and translations.