We had idols who influenced us, from Jethro Tull to Deep Purple and later Supertramp. From the beginning, we tried to play as well as our Anglo-American colleagues, remembers Thomas Brück, bassist and singer of the Cologne progressive rock band Satin Whale.Generally labelled, as usual with a German rock band in the early 1970s, as Krautrock, the four Cologne musicians already developed on their debut album Desert Places (released in 1974 on the Brain label, the trademark for rock music from Germany) a quite independent and unmistakable sound with high recognition value. Reward of the effort - already the debut album was sufficient that in the same year the listeners of the German Radio Station Südwestfunk voted Satin Whale the most popular band in Germany in the contest Rocksound 74. The musicians then continued on their successful course.Over the years Satin Whale released 5 studio albums, a soundtrack (Die Faust In Der Tasche, 1979, starring Manfred Krug and Ursula Monn), a live double album and a remix album, for which Germany`s producer legend Conny Plank was responsible.Now a complete retrospective of Satin Whale's work is released in two box sets. The first box set The Studio Albums contains the 5 studio albums from the years 1974 to 1981, the second box set (released a few months later) contains the live album, the remix album and the soundtrack. A booklet with plenty of background information by Thomas Zimmermann and photos are documenting the history of the band.

Passion, solitude, nostalgia, the pain of the world, flight, death — these are the typical themes of Romanticism. Konstantin Krimmel has already explored this era of extreme emotion in Saga, his first recital album (Alpha549). Now, with collaborative pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz, he plunges even deeper into this cosmos. "I simply love telling stories. Even as a child, I loved listening to old legends and tales", says Krimmel, who is indeed a fabulous storyteller-singer. The two artists have chosen here to compare songs by Franz Schubert and Carl Loewe that embody these great themes. The two composers, both masters of the Lied, had very different destinies: Loewe lived to be 72 years old, more than twice as old as Schubert, who had died aged 31.

Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir led by Aapo Hakkinen join their forces together with an impressive vocal cast, Carolyn Sampson, Benno Schachtner, Werner Gura, Jonathan Sells and Cornelius Uhle, in this unique release of rarely heard choral works by Robert Schumann (1810-1856). This recording includes the world premiere recording of Schumann's 17-minute Adventlied, Op. 71 for soloists, chorus and orchestra, four choral ballades based on texts by Emanuel Geibel, and Schumann's version of Bach's Cantata BWV 105. Robert Schumann wrote in 1850: "Keep in mind that there are also singers, and that the highest in musical expression is achieved through the chorus and orchestra."

A fantasy that turned into a symphony? First and foremost, this double album enshrines the exemplary work of an ensemble whose designation 'Baroque Orchestra' by no means limits it's excursions into later repertories: under the watchful eye of a gifted conductor, the 'Freiburgers' (and co.) offer us a profoundly renewed vision of the Ninth, that myth among myths, that touchstone of a genre in quest of the absolute - and the direct descendant of a much earlier 'Choral Fantasy'. The latter work showcased one of Beethoven's most extraordinary talents: improvisation. Kristian Bezuidenhout has joined forces again with his concerto partners to let us experience this little-known score as if it had just been premiered… then transcribed by Beethoven himself!

This 2-CD set with The Purcell Quartet and a distinguished group of soloists is the third in a series devoted to Bach’s early cantatas and the second focussing on the Weimar period. On an earlier release, International Record Review wrote, ‘The Purcell Quartet and guests are most welcome: even the most distinguished of period performers with larger ensembles can’t achieve the intimacy that the forces here have at their disposal’.

When recording Bach's 199 sacred cantatas, various strategies have been employed to impose meaningful order on them. There's the "everything from BWV 1 to BWV 199" approach, the "everything in the church year" approach, and the less frequently employed "everything in chronological order" approach, adopted here by the Purcell Quartet. In this the second volume in the series, the four works come from Bach's Weimar period, specifically from 1714 and 1715: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, BWV 12 (Weeping, sighing, sorrowing, crying); Gleichwie der Regen und Schnee vom Himmel fällt, BWV 18 (For as the rain and snow fall down from heaven); Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61 (Now come, the heathen's Savior); and Komm, du süsse Todesstunde, BWV 161 (Come, sweet hour of my death).

Celebrating 80 years of vigorous artistic life with Brahms’ expansive and consoling mass for the dead, Ein deutsches Requiem, the hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra) under its Chief Conductor Paavo Järvi, is joined by soprano Natalie Dessay, baritone Ludovic Tézier and the Swedish Radio Choir in an interpretation described as “exemplary” by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Lean and austere, yet deeply felt and profoundly spiritual, the first volume in Chandos' series of recordings of Bach's early Cantatas is a complete success. With one player and one singer per part, these are chamber music-scaled performances: it is quite lean and very austere. But that's fine: the musicians are all superb and the music benefits from their individual attention. Indeed, it gains immensely in intensity when a single musician is responsible for each part. Better yet, the music gains enormously in lyricism when those musicians are of the caliber performing here. The Purcell Quartet is arguably the best Baroque chamber ensemble in England and it is augmented here with equally fine additional players.

The cantatas of volume 19 can be relegated to three groups: Four works (BWV 72, 88, 129 and 193) belong to the third Leipzig series, lasting from 1725 to 1727; five (BWV 145, 159, 171, 174 and 188) belong to the group known as the Picander cycle of 1728-29, which was not completed or has not survived complete; two works (BWV 51 and 117) belong to the period after 1730, in which Bach composed new church cantatas only sporadically.

The result really is something special, a performance of growing intensity and concentration, which gradually exerted an iron grip on me as listener – right up until a deeply moving ‘Der Leiermann’.

n der Geschichte des Gitarrenrock gibt es wenige Bands, die bis zum neunten Studioalbum durchgehalten haben. Die Beatsteaks hingegen veröffentlichen mit ihrem neunten Werk »PLEASE« einen Longplayer, der mit der Eindringlichkeit, dem Spielwitz und der Unrast einer explosiven Debüt-LP auftrumpft. »Was uns innerhalb der Band verbindet, ist ja unter anderem, dass wir alle nicht lange ruhig halten können«, schmunzelt Sänger und Gitarrst Arnim Teutoburg-Weiß. Das neue Album sei »so zappelig, wie jedes einzelne Mitglied der Beatsteaks es auch ist« — und »immer ein bisschen zu dolle«. Etwas Schönes muss sich schon im Kern schön anfühlen und in einer stress- und argwohnfreien Zone reifen. Der größtmöglichen Leichtigkeit zuliebe haben die Beatsteaks ihren Laden aufgeräumt — und neuen Wind reingelassen. Mit Olaf Opal, der mit seinen Arbeiten zwischen verspieltem Underground und straighten Multiplatin-Erfolgen als einer der versiertesten zeitgenössischen Produzenten gilt, ging es nicht ins Studio, sondern in den Publikumsbereich des Berliner Columbia Theaters.

Mit „Alles oder Nichts“ präsentiert Deutschpop-Künstlerin KATI K ihr Debütalbum. 14 Songs unter denen neben vielen neuen Songs auch ihre Hits „Liebesbeweis“, „Mascara“ und „Erwischt“ zu hören sein werden. Ihre sehr besondere, klare Stimmfarbe emotionalisiert und verschafft ihr in den sozialen Medien eine Reichweite von bereits über 1,8 Millionen Nutzer:innen. „Das Album wird ein ganz besonderes. Denn es teilt sich in zwei Welten. Die erste ist die dunkle und traurige. Es zeigt Facetten im Leben, die nicht ganz so schön verliefen. Gescheiterte Beziehungen, Selbstzweifel und Depressionen. Die zweite Seite ist weiß. Die helle Seite, die für die Hoffnung und Liebe steht, was sich auch in den Songs widerspiegeln wird“, verrät KATI K.

"EDEN is an invitation to return to our roots. It is an overture to engage with the sheer perfection of the world around us, to consider if we are connecting as profoundly as we can to the pure essence of our being. It is a clarion call to contemplate if our collective suffering isn't perhaps linked to the aching separation from something primal within and around us. This is a vivid musical exploration through the centuries to remember and to create a new EDEN from within." - Joyce DiDonato

With Myrthen, baritone Christian Gerhaher opens Chapter 2 of his life project: a complete recording of the lieder of Robert Schumann. Since Dietrich Fischer-Dieskaus epoch-making recording of the 1970s, no singer has devoted himself more thoroughly to the lied output of Robert Schumann than Christian Gerhaher. Lauded as the greatest lied singer of our time, he launched his complete recording of Schumanns lieder with the album Frage, released in autumn 2018. It marks the fulfilment of a long-cherished dream and, he emphasises, probably the most important project of my life. The Neue Zurcher Zeitung spoke of consummate vocal artistry. Gerhaher has opened a new door in lied interpretation.

Throughout history men have feared madwomen, burning them as witches, confining them in asylums and subjecting them to psychoanalysis – yet, they have also been fascinated, unable to resist fantasizing about them. For their new disc, Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton have created a programme that explores the responses of a variety of composers to women whose stories have left them vulnerable and exposed. As a motto they have chosen an aphorism by Nietzsche: ‘There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness.’