Freedom, fraternity and humanity – this is what Beethoven’s 9th Symphony stands for. It opens the 10th Grafenegg Festival, performed by the Tonkunstler Orchestra, joined by 24 alumni of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) and ‘a soloist quartet which no one could possibly imagine to be more prestigious’ (Die Presse). ‘Vogt’s tenor and the Wiener Singverein were especially moving’ (Wiener Zeitung) and ‘the vocal performance by excellent bass René Pape, the fabulous soprano Camilla Nylund and the brilliant mezzosoprano Elena Zhidkova… in Beethoven’s Ninth was just sensational. Bravo!’ (Kurier) Composer in Residence Christian Jost’s new work also centres around Beethoven, featuring the song An die Hoffnung (‘To Hope’), and ‘convincingly used an impressive orchestra’ (Der Standard), with ‘tenor Klaus Florian Vogt as a well-cast soloist’ (Salzburger Nachrichten).

Bridge Records is pleased to issue guitarist David Starobin's final studio recording, W.T. Matiegka's Six Sonatas, op. 31, performed on a Viennese style guitar. Starobin regards Matiegka's sonatas as "in their time, the pinnacle of expression on the guitar, offering the most detailed notation of both articulation and character–a clear window onto performance style in the era of Beethoven and Schubert." Since Starobin's retirement from the concert stage in 2018, the native New Yorker has kept a busy schedule, co-authoring with his wife Becky, the libretto of the opera The Thirteenth Child (music by Poul Ruders); writing and directing the film, String Trio, Los Angeles 1946 (filmed in Arnold Schoenberg's Los Angeles home); and serving as Director of Artists and Repertoire at Bridge Records. David Starobin teaches at the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he co-founded Curtis's guitar program in 2011. A frequently honored figure, Starobin was called “arguably the most influential American classical guitarist of the 20th Century” (Soundboard), and was inducted into the Guitar Foundation of America's "Hall of Fame" in 2011.

The Czech Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras, recorded at the Rudolfinum hall in Prague Leoš Janáček’s opera Katya Kabanova, starring the world-renowned soprano Gabriela Beňačková in the title role. Released on two CDs in the autumn of 1997, it subsequently won a number of prestigious prizes, including the Cannes Classical Award and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. It also received a nomination for the Grammy Awards.

Clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld unexpectedly kindled a creative fire in the aging Johannes Brahms one last time, resulting in a beautiful series of chamber music works for this instrument. Musicians of the WDR Symphony Orchestra now present a CD on GENUIN featuring the Clarinet Trio and the Clarinet Quintet. Trio Chronos (with Simon Deffner, violoncello, and Gottlieb Wallisch, piano), joined by violinists José Maria Blumenschein and Cristian Suvaiala, and violist Junichiro Murakami, forms the basis of the two distinguished chamber music formations led by clarinettist Andreas Langenbuch. Autumnul works of aching beauty!

Carl Theodor of the Palatinate. Richter joined this renowned ensemble in 1747, serving as a composer, violinist, and bassist. His works combine Baroque stylistic features with elements of the style galant, and he numbered among the masters of the Mannheim school who made very important contributions to the beginnings of the early classical symphony. While Johann Stamitz, Ignaz Holzbauer, and Anton Fils, drawing on ideas of Italian provenance, shaped the new musical language of what came to be known as the Mannheim school, Richter’s own comparatively conservative view of music was an obstacle to his advancement. His collection of Six Symphonies op. 2 dedicated to Prince Elector Carl Theodor was printed by the publisher Johann Julius Hummel in Amsterdam in 1759. All six symphonies have three movements, and in these works Richter generally adhered to the model established by the opera sinfonia.

As part of their research for the five-part CD production "Beethovens Welt 1799-1851" (2020), the Casal Quartet came across Carl Czerny, one of two of Beethoven's students, represented by his String Quartet No. 28 in A flat major, and the Viennese composer Anton Eberl (1765-1807), who was Mozart's friend and student. As an outstanding pianist and composer, he gained great popularity and, after he returned to Vienna from St. Petersburg, even had more prominent supporters than Beethoven. His life ended surprisingly at the zenith of his success in 1807. His music, as can be seen, for example, in the excellent recordings of the symphonies by Concerto Köln and the piano sonatas by Luca Quintavalle, is often surprisingly modern for its time. Like the late works of Mozart and those new Beethoven, they augur the revolutionary dawn of Romanticism."

The orchestral version of the chamber piece Phantasmagoria reworks parts of Corigliano’s opera into a volatile tone-poem, as does the Fantasia on an Ostinato originally for piano solo. If you want Altered States without the film, try the Three Hallucinations. Stunning sound and performances.

Ederlezi spans 10 years of Goran Bregovic's film music career, covering much of his work for Balkan director Emir Kusturica as well as to the movies Toxic Affair and La Reine Margot. It shouldn't be a shock to discover that Bregovic's music is steeped in the culture of his homeland. His compositions for Kusturica's Underground are a goulash of foot-stomping gypsy festivities, like the Balkan take on Carnaval in "Cajesukarije Cocek" and the thunderous trumpet on "Kalasnjikov". For the film Le temps des gitans he wrote "Talijanska", which begins with a pleasant jaunt on the accordion, makes a daring turn into a cul-de-sac of brooding drones, and then returns to the welcome safety of the starting point with a larger ensemble. There are also many unexpected encounters on this collection, the most surprising being Iggy Pop's vocals on the EZ-listening pop of "TV Screen". Others include the juxtaposition of tender acoustic guitar and chimes with narration by Johnny Depp on "American Dreamers" and the crooning of dark angel Scott Walker on "Man From Reno".

DVD bonus features: exclusive documentary & interview with the band, individual track selection, stereo & 5.1 audio…

On the final instalment of its Requiem series, the Flemish Radio Choir tackles Poulenc’s iconic Stabat Mater (1950) and Alfred Desenclos’ Requiem (1963), stunning works which steer clear of the typical Requiem horrors to convey a message of hope. Teaming up with the Brussels Philharmonic, the Flemish Radio Choir and its acclaimed director Hervé Niquet extract the emotional and rhetorical essence of music which is eminently French, unusually tender, and delicately majestic.

Funky album with powerful grooves, strutting horns & swaggering guitars, one of the band members is Dobie Gray of "In Crowd" & "Drift Away" fame.