​In case some of the LPs showed hairlines and the customer was not happy with it audite offered to replace the whole product with a complete box from the second edition which is not affected by hairlines. To receive the replacement customers had to send in their invoice and pack the previous box ready for pickup. The return of the original box and the shipment of the replacement were organized by audite without any additional costs for the customer.

As expected, only a small fraction of the LP boxes of the first edition was returned and replaced by customers and distributors. This again is proof for the statement audite posted all along that in spite of the hairlines the percentage of substitutable products does not exceed the usual percentage in any other vinyl production.

But we are very happy that we were able to satisfy also those customers who were unhappy with the audite product before!

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In this SACD William Thomas Best (1826-1897), with his arrangements of selected organ works and the Chaconne for Solo Violin by Bach, makes his appearance as a dramatic director: his stage directions in matters of choice of tempo, articulation, registration, selection of manualsand, where appropriate, the use of the swell pedal, enable the greatfree-standing organ works to appear as dramatic scenas or ballads, while thesmaller-scale works and chorale preludes come across as poetry. Carsten Wiebusch dramatises Bach on the new Klais organ in the Christuskirche, Karlsruhe, in a way that is both poetic and powerful.

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Searching for musical truthThe Mandelring Quartet's remarkable homogeneity of sound, intonation and phrasing has become its distinguishing characteristic; four individuals who play as one in their shared determination to always seek out the innermost core of the music and remain open to the musical truth. By grasping the spiritual dimension, exploring the emotional extremes and working on the details, these musicians probe far beneath the surface of each work, thus revealing the multiplicity of meanings inherent in each. Their approach to the music is always both emotional and personal. All this combines to make the Mandelring Quartet one of the most high-profile ensembles on the international chamber music scene.As winners of several major international competitions - Munich (ARD), Evian and Reggio Emilia (Premio Paolo Borciani) - the Mandelring Quartet has emerged as one of the important string quartets of today, appearing at the world's great concert venues. In addition to numerous performances in Germany, the Mandelring Quartet's concert tours have taken them throughout Europe - Amsterdam, Brus­sels, London, Madrid, Paris and Vienna - annually to North America - New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Vancouver - to Japan - Osaka and Tokyo - Central and South America - Buenos Aires, Lima, Montevideo - the Middle East and Asia.The Mandelring Quartet has enjoyed highly successful appearances at the Rheingau Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and other important international festivals such as Lockenhaus, Montpellier, Montreal, Ottawa, the Engadiner Konzertwochen in Switzerland and the Salzburg Festival, where they have been invited to present complete cycle of Shostakovich string quartets in summer 2011.The Quartet's CD recordings have received numerous awards. Numbering more than two dozen, they include a Schubert string quartet cycle, piano quintets by Brahms and Franck and a series "Brahms and his Contemporaries", selected by the Strad Magazine as CD Of The Month saying: "Here the Mandelring combine the LaSalle Quartet's intellectual vigor with the Amadeus' unbridled passion to provide the best of both worlds." Their recordings of the string quartets of Shostakovich have been hailed by the press as one of the outstanding complete recordings of our time. "The direct comparison I've done puts the Mandelring Quartet's cycle up with the best. If I were to shed all but two cycles, I would keep the Borodin cycle and the Mandelring Quartet." (Fanfare). The CD with Schumann's Piano Quartet and Piano Quintet has been praised as the new reference recording, and their recent disc of String Quartets by Leoš Janác(ek has received the German Record Critics' Prize.The HAMBACHERMusikFEST, the quartet's own festival, provides a meeting place each year for lovers of chamber music from all over the world. Since 2010 the Mandelring Quartet has presented a regular series of concerts at the Kammermusicsaal of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Nominated audite productions:

• aud. 92.652 Polychoral Splendour from the four galleries of the Abbey Church of Muri (category: Baroque Vocal)

• aud. 92.656 Mendelssohn: Complete Chamber Music for Strings, Vol. 1 (category: Chamber Music)

• aud. 92.576 Stravinsky: Divertimento - Shostakovich: Violin Sonata Op. 134 (category: Chamber Music)

• aud. 97.536 Arnold: Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano - Debussy: Rhapsody for clarinet & piano - Poulenc: Clarinet Sonata - Saint-Saëns: Clarinet Sonata in E flat major - Schumann: Fantasiestücke Op. 73 (category: Chamber Music)

• aud. 92.673 Tchaikovsky: Piano Trio Op. 50 'In Memory of a Great Artist' (category: Chamber Music)

• aud. 21.412 Second Viennese School Project (category: Historical Recordings)

• aud. 21.408 Otto Klemperer - RIAS recordings Berlin 1950-1958 (category: Historical Recordings)

• aud. 23.426 Schubert - Schumann - Wolf - Duparc - Ravel - Debussy (category: Historical Recordings)

• aud. 21.415 The Rias Bach Cantatas Project Berlin, 1949-1952 (category: Historical Recordings)

The winners of the ICMA 2013 will be announced on 1st of February 2013, the Award Ceremony and Gala concert will take place in Milan, on the 18th of March 2013.

This video provides impressions on the recording situation of the CD production for the album Vesperae in honorem Sancti Dominici, Gregorian Chants of the Dominicans and Organ Improvisations.

​​A choir of young Dominicans conducted by Father Thomas Möller OP sings solemn vespers in Latin in honour of St Dominic, founder of the order, in the Hamburg Dominican church of St Sophien. The order, which celebrates its 800th anniversary in 2016, has a long tradition of Gregorian Chants. In 1256, the General Chapter (the highest instance in the Dominican order) adopted its own liturgy, which remained the only valid form for Dominicans until the Second Vatican Council. On this CD, we can hear hymns and anthems that still today continue to be sung by Dominican friars and nuns world-wide in their liturgical prayer. In counterpoint to these Latin hymns and anthems, we hear the contrasting voice of the organ improvisations of Prof. Thierry Mechler -- one of the great organ virtuosos, famous for his own improvisation style.

​The daily Tagesspiegel writes: "...what the much lauded and prize-winning Mandelring Quartet has to offer, with its disciplined tone, almost devoid of mystery, is something one would very much like to hear in clearest detail."

The Tageszeitung (taz) notes that the players, "while attacking the dynamic passages with ferocity, sustained the tension in the quiet sections and convinced their audience with their perfectly honed ensemble playing."

And the review on RBB (Radio Berlin and Brandenburg) remarks: "And what does the brilliant Mandelring Quartet do with it? Rhetoric never dominates. Even in the stormy passages they leave us room for our own emotions, and they craft the slow sections with such a wealth of detail that one strives not to miss a moment. And in their self-effacing approach these musicians perform the music above and beyond the suffering it expresses, so that the lament, when turned into music, can even bring consolation."

​These recordings were made on 9 and 11 May 1952 and document the latter part of Kirsten Flagstad's career. They were made a few weeks before her 57th birthday, thus at a time when most sopranos will have been forced to change over to the so-called character fach. The Norwegian soprano however, even at this late stage, was still in almost full command of her incomparably rich voice, even after a demanding career spanning over three decades.

The present recordings of two concerts given at the Berlin Titania-Palast with the Orchestra of the Municipal Opera are particularly noteworthy: on the one hand, the Wagner songs sound fresher and more present than in the recording made four years later under Hans Knappertsbusch; on the other, the Berlin live-recording of the Strauss songs is technically far superior to the recording made in London. By the way, in May 1950 Kirsten Flagstad had given the first performance of the "Four Last Songs" by Richard Strauss - at the request of the composer.

A tribute to her unique status was also the multitude of her concert engagements: During the course of her career, she sang more than eighty parts in around 2100 performances and also gave approximately 250 concerts with orchestra and 600 recitals.

The recording is available in stores and at www.audite.de.