Oratorios (box with 4 CDs)
Contents
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Composer
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
| 1809-1847
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Preface writer
R. Larry Todd
Prof. Dr. R. Larry Todd ist Arts & Sciences Professor of Music, Duke University, Durham. Bei Carus hat er zahlreiche Werke von Mendelssohn herausgegeben, darunter die Oratorien Elias, Paulus sowie Christus. Seine bei Carus in deutscher Sprache erschienene Mendelssohn-Biografie ist zumStandardwerk für Forschung und Mendelssohn-Fans geworden.
Personal details
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Choir
Kammerchor Stuttgart
The Kammerchor Stuttgart is regarded as one of the best ensembles of its kind. Over its fifty-year existence, Frieder Bernius has developed the choir into an exceptional ensemble acclaimed by audiences and press alike. This has led to invitations for the choir to perform at all the important European festivals. In Germany the chamber choir performs at festivals and in concert halls in repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. Frieder Bernius and his ensemble have received numerous accolades for their contribution to new music. The Kammerchor Stuttgart has made over 80 CDs and LPs, numerous of which have been awarded international recording prizes (including the Edison award, Diapason d’or, Gramophone Choice, Classical Internet Award, International Classical Music Award, and German Record Critics’ Award prizes). The International Federation for Choral Music has invited the ensemble to sing at the 1st, 4th and 10th World Symposia on Choral Music in Vienna, Sydney and Seoul. Regular tours of North America and Asia since 1988 and a South America tour reflect the Kammerchor Stuttgart’s international reputation. Since 1984 the top ensemble has also been invited to Israel biennially. Personal details
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Ensemble
Bamberger Symphoniker
Mitglieder der Bamberger Symphoniker Personal details
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Ensemble
Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is one of the world's leading orchestras, captivating audiences everywhere with its unique style of music-making. The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been the orchestra's Artistic Director since 2004.
One of the many highlights of the collaboration with Paavo Järvi has been their Beethoven Project, on which conductor and orchestra concentrated for six years. Their Beethoven interpretations have been acclaimed worldwide by audiences and critics alike as benchmark performances. Following the Beethoven Project The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi focused on Robert Schumann's symphonic works with equal success.
The latest project of the orchestra and its conductor is the German composer Johannes Brahms. The first CD (Sony/RCA) of the project – Symphony No. 2, Tragic Ouverture and the Academic Festi-val Ouverture – was released in autumn 2017 and received the Opus Klassik in October 2018. The second CD, including Symphony No. 1 and the Haydn-Variations, followed in autumn 2018. With the third and fourth Symphony, released in March 2019, the symphony cycle has come to completion.
Highlight of the project was the internationally acclaimed performance of ›A German Requiem‹ on the 10th of April 2018 at Bremen Cathedral, 150 years after the first performance. The recording has now been released on DVD and Blu-ray by C-Major. In October 2019, ›The Brahms Code‹ – an excit-ing TV/DVD documentary about the Brahms Project produced by Deutsche Welle/Unitel – was re-leased and is the current German Record Critics' Award winner in the category music film (listed 1/20).
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has been honoured with countless prizes such as Echo, Opus and Diapason d'Or for its recordings and the unique education project with the Gesamtschule Bremen-Ost in Osterholz-Tenever, the Zukunftslabor. For years, the orchestra has cultivated close musical friendships with international soloists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Maria João Pires, Janine Jansen, Igor Levit, Hilary Hahn and Martin Grubinger.
The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is permanent guest orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Festival Orchestra of Kissinger Sommer. Personal details
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Ensemble
Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart
The Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart is comprised of musicians from leading German symphony orchestras and chamber ensembles who have been performing with Frieder Bernius over a long period. Although the orchestra uses modern instruments, the conductor and his players are particularly interested in stylistic distinctions. For performances of large-scale choral works, the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart is the orchestral pendant to the Kammerchor Stuttgart. The orchestra has participated in a variety of events, including the Rheingau Music Festival, Stuttgart European Musikfest, Baden-Württemberg International Festival, Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wroc³aw (Poland), the Kassel Music Festival, the Philharmonic Society of Brussels and the Herbstliche Musiktage Bad Urach. The idea of creating an orchestral partner of equal quality to the Kammerchor Stuttgart has been vindicated not least by their joint recording of Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem. The French periodical Répertoire has confirmed Frieder Bernius’s vision of the work as a “discographic knockout.” Personal details
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Conductor
Frieder Bernius
| 1947Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details
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Soloist - soprano
Monika Meier-Schmid
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Soloist - soprano
Dorothea Rieger
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Soloist - soprano
Maria Cristina Kiehr
Maria Cristina Kiehr wurde in Argentinien geboren und erhielt dort ihre erste musikalische Ausbildung. Ab 1983 studierte sie Gesang an der Schola Cantorum Basiliensis sowie bei Eva Krasznai-Gombos. Konzerte und Aufnahmen mit renommierten Künstlern und Ensembles führten sie nach Europa, Japan, USA, Südamerika und Australien. Neben verschiedenen Opernproduktionen mit Aufführungen u.a. von Monteverdi, Cavalli, Purcell, Gluck und Vivaldi sind die Forschung, Wiederentdeckung und Uraufführungen unbekannter Komponisten und Werke weitere Schwerpunkte ihrer künstlerischen Arbeit. Ihre zahlreichen Schallplatteneinspielungen erhielten Auszeichnungen wie den „Diapason d’Or“ und den “Grammophon Award”. Personal details
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Soloist - soprano
Letizia Scherrer
The Swiss soprano Letizia Scherrer was trained at the Feldkirch Conservatory and at the Conservatories in Zurich, Tel Aviv (T. Rachum), and Basel (Kurt Widmer). She has received awards at the eleventh Leipzig Bach Competition, from the Eliette von Karajan Cultural Fund (Karajan-Preis 2003) and elsewhere. In 1999 Letizia Scherrer made her debut at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Jordi Savalli and in Carnegie Hall, New York, under Helmuth Rilling’s direction. Since then, this versatile soprano with an extensive repertoire ranging from Baroque to Modern has undertaken a busy schedule of concerts in many parts of Europe and North and South America, working with such conductors as Corboz, Creed, Herreweghe, Honeck, Korsten, Norrington, Rilling, Savall, Sawallisch, Venzago and Weigle. Personal details
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Soloist - soprano
Sarah Wegener
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Soloist - alto
Isolde Assenheimer
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Soloist - alto
Renée Morloc
Renée Morloc trained as a singer in Stuttgart and Salzburg. The contralto made her operatic debut as Erda in Siegfried at the Mannheim Nationaltheater. Her repertoire consists chiefly of Wagner, Richard Strauss and Verdi roles. She has made guest appearances in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dresden, Tokyo, at many European opera houses, and in the USA. Her Salzburg Festival debut in 2007 was in the Breth production of Eugene Onegin, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. She has also been involved in radio, television and film productions and CD recordings. Her concert career has focused on Mahler’s orchestral works with solo voice, in addition to an extensive oratorio repertoire. She has sung in Leonard Bernstein’s seldom-performed Jeremiah Symphony as well as in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and numerous contemporary works. Personal details
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Soloist - alto
Mechthild Seitz
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Soloist - tenor
Christoph Prégardien
As one of the outstanding lyric tenors of today, Christoph Pregardien is highly regarded as a lieder singer. He specializes in lieder and oratorio and his repertoire encompasses all periods. Christoph Pregardien and his accompanist Michael Gees received the MIDEM Classical Award 2009 for their recording of Schubert’s “Die schone Mullerin”. Personal details
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Soloist - tenor
Werner Güra
Werner Güra studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum. He continued his vocal training with Kurt Widmer in Basle and Margreet Honig in Amsterdam. He has appeared as a guest singer in operas in Frankfurt, Basle, Dresden, Paris and Brussels, and has sung regularly at the Staatsoper in Berlin since 1999. As a concert and oratorio singer he frequently appears with leading orchestras and renowned conductors. He has made a number of tours to Japan. Werner Güra also has a reputation as a Lied interpreter, which is reflected in concerts for international promoters and in his numerous recordings, which have won prestigious awards like the “Diapason d’Or.” Personal details
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Soloist - tenor
Stefan Dörr
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Soloist - tenor
Bernhard Scheffel
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Soloist - baritone
Johannes Happel
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Soloist - bass
Cornelius Hauptmann
| 1951
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Soloist - bass
Michael Volle
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Soloist - bass
Adolph Seidel
Adolph Seidel studied singing with Peter Wetzler and Paul Lohmann. He specializes in music of the early and high Baroque. As well as bass roles in concert repertoire, he particularly enjoys ensemble singing. Reflecting this, since 1977 he has been a member of the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the sixteen soloists of the Kammerchor Stuttgart under Frieder Bernius and the KammerChor Saarbrücken, and has been the bass in the Orlando di Lasso-Ensemble for several years. As well as his work as a singer, he is director of the vocal ensemble VocArt, specializing in the performance of Baroque vocal music ranging from small-scale works for soloists to oratorio works. Personal details
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Soloist - organ
Sonntraud Engels-Benz
Reviews
Bernius offers more than almost everyone. This is a terrific box, and testimony to the virtues of hard work, application, imagination and individual and corporate excellence. Lucky Stuttgart.
Jonathan Woolf, musicweb-international.com, März 2014
A set you can possess with pride and enjoy at length.
Dominy Clements, musicweb-international.com, Juli 2013
Die unter den Händen von Frieder Bernius in den letzten Jahrzehnten entstandene Gesamteinspielung des geistlichen Chorwerks Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdys wurde zu Recht als Großtat gefeiert. … Es gibt vieles an diesen Aufnahmen zu loben: die Klangkultur, die vokalen solistischen Leistungen, das Gespür für Klangfarben, die Ausgewogenheit in der Fokussierung auf sowohl polyphone Strukturen als auch kantable Linien, die Bündelung orchestraler und chorischer Kräfte zu einem strahlenden, gut durchhörbaren Ganzen, die Abgeklärtheit und zugleich Expressivität des Zugriffs, die Natürlichkeit der Ausführung, das transparente Klangbild.
Aron Sayed, klassik.com, 8. Juni 2013
Was seit kurzem beim CarusVerlag in zwei ansprechenden BoxSets mit gewohnt ausführlichem Inlay vorliegt, war in solcher Essenz und Kontur Mitte der achtziger Jahre wahrlich nicht absehbar. Nun aber liegt hier ein beispielloses editorisches und interpretatorisches Projekt vor, das über all die Jahre im international angesehenen Frieder Bernius einen ebenso kompetenten wie visionären Mentor an seiner Seite wusste. Nicht zu vergessen als kongenialer Partner von Beginn an der Kammerchor Stuttgart ...
Norbert Meyers, Kirchenzeitung für das Bistum Aachen, 21. April 2013