Radical, daring and extremely refined: that’s how Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach saw his new path for the Oratorio, after his father’s Passions had marked the climax of the baroque era. Encouraged by his godfather Telemann and liberated from the yoke of the capricious Frederick of Prussia, he found himself in Hamburg with an audience hungry for new music. And he brought them his oratorios, no longer in churches but in concert halls, where he demanded the listener’s undivided attention for sudden changes of mood and colour.

2022 remastered edition. In 1975, the second album of the Berlin based electronic group Mythos was released. Mastermind Stephan Kaske and his band present the typical sound cascades and sequences of the Berlin school. Similar to the works of several other fellow artists on the same label, the album develops a science fiction concept around the story of an extraterrestrial visitor on a journey to Earth. Dreamlab is predominantly made up of peaceful and relaxed music. The meter is often determined by echoes from flutes and guitar riffs backed by expansive Mellotron arrangements. This remastered reissue comes in a digisleeve on the original Kosmische Kuriere label.

"Ich bin vergnugt" (I am content) is the title of the new CD by soprano Miriam Feuersinger. It refers to Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata "Ich bin vergnugt mit meinem Glucke" BWV 84, but it also corresponds entirely to the feelings of the singer, who is fulfilling a long-cherished wish of her heart with this programme.

Varèse Sarabande revisits the glory days of 1980s sci-fi “synthwave” with a new edition of Tangerine Dream’s classic electronic score for Firestarter (1984).Firestarter, based on a 1980 book by Stephen King and directed by Mark L. Lester, starred eight-year-old Drew Barrymore as Charly, a girl with pyrokinetic powers owing to her parents’ participation in a secret study of hallucinogenic drugs. When the agency behind the experiments comes for Charly to weaponize her powers, led by an assassin played by George C. Scott, she goes on the run with her father.

Two CDs. Deluxe Edition of Olivia Newton-John's historic debut studio album, If Not for You. Disc 1 features the original 1971 album, including "Me and Bobby McGee" (Kris Kristofferson). Disc 2 features 17 bonus tracks, including B-sides, alternate takes, and 2 previously unreleased recordings, "Round and Round," and "Game of Love." This record showcases her first work with longtime collaborator and hit songwriter/producer John Farrar.

Bach and Pygmalion: the story of a passion linking the genius of the Thomaskantor to a reflection on inner drama and constantly renewed vocality. This Matthäus Passion marks a major stage in this fifteen- year companionship and testifies to the culmination of their work on Bach, characterised by its precision and humility. Read through the prism of a tragedy in five acts, at once intimate and theatrical, human and metaphysical, the Passion is revealed here in a new light: as a deeply moving epic exploring the very heart of Lutheran spirituality.

Falco was the most internationally successful pop artist ever to come out of Austria, best known for his 1986 chart-topping hit "Rock Me Amadeus." Born Johann Holzel in Vienna on February 19, 1957, he was a classically trained child prodigy, but after graduating from the Vienna Conservatoire, he relocated to West Berlin and began fronting a jazz-rock band. Rechristening himself Falco in honor of the German skier Falko Weissflog, he returned to Vienna in time to play bass on the punk outfit Drahdiwaberl's 1979 album Psycho Today, penning their best-known song, "Ganz Wein." Falco began his solo career in 1982 with the LP Einzelhaft; his "Der Kommissar," which fused techno-pop with rapped German lyrics, became a major European hit and a club favorite in the U.S., with a cover version by the group After the Fire reaching the Top Five in 1983. The follow-up, "Jeanny," was banned outright by radio as a result of its theme of prostitution, but nevertheless went on to top the German charts. While 1984's Junge Roemer attracted little attention, in 1986 Falco issued Falco 3, highlighted by the single "Rock Me Amadeus," a campy blend of classical music and synth pop which topped both the American and British charts. While the rock ballad "Vienna Calling" was a minor hit, Falco's subsequent efforts, including 1986's Emotional and 1988's Wiener Blut, fared poorly; he had been long out of the spotlight when he died in a car accident on February 6, 1998 at the age of 40.

Bass-baritone Christian Immler, accompanied by the pianist Andreas Frese, juxtaposes the contemporary composer Jörg Widmann with the Romantic Schumann in three cycles of lieder written between 1849 and 2013. ‘For us, Jörg Widmanns song cycle Das heiße Herz (‘The Burning Heart’) is to be numbered among the very greatest song cycles, and not just among those of this century. During our intensive rehearsals with Jörg Widmann, the many questions we had (and what a joy to be able to ask them!) often had surprisingly simple answers. The combination with Schumann’s late Harper and Lenau song cycles seems absolutely perfect, for similar situations permeate these cycles as well". Das heiße Herz is recorded here for the first time.

This innovative programme presents an imaginary Christmas oratorio made up of works by German composers of the 17th century. Many of these works are unpublished and come from the splendid Düben collection in the library of the University of Uppsala; they are arranged here in a sequence that introduces the scenes and the principal characters of the Nativity: Mary, Joseph, the Archangel Gabriel, the angels, the shepherds, the Magi and Simeon. These works belong to the genre of the historia sacra and depict the dialogue of the Annunciation between the archangel Gabriel and Mary, the arrival of the Magi — guided by angels — at the manger, and the scene where Mary and Joseph look for Jesus in the Temple.

December is a time of anticipation. We wait and we hope - veni, come! The songs on this album encompass many nuances and moods - from joy and jubilant celebration to deep melancholy and longing. They move between folk tunes, English carols and traditional Christmas songs from different times and parts of the world, between Bach and Ives, Bulgaria and Norway. Several of the songs refer to the passing of the year, the cycle of nature and rhythms of daily life: lullabies for peace of mind and comfort, and songs about surrendering ourselves to the unfathomable and unknowable in the midst of our everyday concerns: the stars will always shine in the sky - and dawn will come.

“I just heard your wonderful Sinfonietta: hope this is the beginning of your American success,” wrote Arnold Schönberg to Zemlinsky. But Zemlinsky was already suffering from the effects of a stroke and died alone in New York just a few days later. In his Sinfonietta, Op. 24 (1934) he reused a short theme from the last of his Maeterlinck-Songs, Op. 13 (1913), “Wohin gehst Du?” (Where are you going?), a theme of “self-doubts” and “farewell” from a time when Zemlinsky was beginning to observe growing anti-Jewish sentiments in Vienna. The Maeterlinck-Songs were praised as “the center of his output” by Theodor Adorno, and transport the listener to a mystic world concerned with life, evanescence and death.

This compilation includes selected works by the noted Renaissance composer Ludwig Senfl, who was an important student of Heinrich Isaac. In 1523 Senfl joined the Munich court orchestra at the court of Maximilian I, where he worked until his death.

Sandrine Piau and the pianist David Kadouch have formed a new duo whose first concerts have been enthusiastically received. As is her wont, the French soprano enjoys intermingling languages and the worlds of different composers and poets around a theme; here Schubert, Liszt, Wolf and Clara Schumann rub shoulders with Lili Boulanger, Duparc and Debussy. Sandrine Piau explains: ‘The promise of new horizons, the joy of new encounters: the journey in all its forms was the common thread of this recital for David and me.

One of the leading mezzos of our day in a Schubert recital which offers seventy minutes of pure pleasure. The twenty-one songs recorded here are among Schubert’s finest, from ‘Erlkönig’ (written in the composer’s annus mirabilis of 1815) to ‘Leise flehen’ (which dates from his final summer).

Schubert’s enigmatic final collection of songs, Schwanengesang, is the subject of baritone Andrè Schuen and his longstanding accompanist Daniel Heide’s second release for DG. Baritone Andrè Schuen calls Schwanengesang “my greatest love among the Schubert lieder. Especially the Heine settings; they move me the most!” His admiration for the cycle dates back to a time before he had even become a professional singer: “It’s one of the first lied compositions I got to know. I remember a recording with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that I played over and over again.”