Ungewöhnlicher Aufnahmeort (Jesus Christus Kirche Berlin-Dahlem) mit recht langer Nachhallzeit. Trotzdem (oder deswegen?) technisch meine beste Klavierplatte! Ungeheure Dynamik und Transparenz bis mitten in den Flügel hinein. Sensationell!

A new and outstanding recording of Grieg’s beautiful Lyric Pieces – played with such feeling and impeccable timing – even letting the quiet moments breath – so refreshing to hear. Like hearing them for the first time. Listen and enjoy the true nature of Grieg’s Piano Works – the trees, the mountains, the wildlife, the beauty and the meloncholy. Outstanding Musicianship from Hideyo Harada.

This ensemble is literally bringing Beethoven's quartets to life. Listening to these recordings – part of a series that will include all the quartets by Ludwig Van – you can appreciate not only the great skills of the musicians, but an overall vision of the composer's evolution. Beautiful tone, timing and dynamics are just part of a consistent view of the music, where details and global perspective are inextricably linked. In my opinion the Quartetto di Cremona has achieved the musical awareness of the best ensembles of the past (whose recordings were often of poor quality). The clear and natural sound of these CDs make sure that the listeners don't miss a breath of the range of emotions generated by this performance.

I have a collection of 20+ Beethoven cello sonatas and variations and this one is one of my favorites. Marc Coppey's flawless technique serves the music in a beautiful and elegant way. The recorded sound is also first class. Bravo!

Selten habe ich so einen schönen, facettenreichen Klang auf einer CD gehört. Das Quartett überzeugt sehr mit seiner Interpretation, temperamentvoll, voller Frische und überzeugenden lyrischen Abwechslung. technisch auf höchstem Niveau.
Ich kann diese Aufnahme sehr weiterempfehlen!

Excellent interpretation and performance by organist Hans-Eberhard Roß. The super-audio sound is riveting and filled with clarity. The Goll Organ (1998) of St. Martin, Memmingen, Germany, although not of the French romantic symphonic Cavailla-Coll organ pedigree, is well suited for this music: the tone coloring and power, and the venue are just right. I have other recordings of these organ symphonies, but this set is my favorite. Highly recommended.

This is an excellent programme with an organist on top form and a modern instrument ideally suited to the musical content. The 35-stop instrument at Riegel is firmly modelled on North German Baroque lines and this is amply confirmed by the sound it makes. If the handbook hadn't stated otherwise, one would have guessed it to be a newly-restored Arp Schnitger!

The programme starts with a quarter-minute demo of the 'Birdsong' stop. This is barely audible, but there is no mistaking what follows! With varied free-style works by Bruhns, Sweelinck, Bohm and Bach et al, this is one of the best Baroque recitals on disc. Registration ranges from Organo Pleno (Bruhns & Buxtehude) to a solitary 4-foot flute (for Sweelinck's More Palatino), all very appropriate to the music and enjoyable to the ear- a good 78 minutes' worth.

This recital finds Schwarzkopf at the height of her vocal & artistic powers, and has the added bonus of being accompanied by one of her "teachers", who was one of the great lied accompanist in the 1930s & 1940s. Raucheisen was responsible for a massive recording project of German Lied, fearing that with Germany's defeat it would be banned from performance – fortunately Allied attitude to German music was far different to the Nazis and theirs to Jewish composers.
It is nice to have this collaboration of "teacher & pupil", it being shortly before his retirement.

'Tientos y Glosas – Iberian Organ and Choral Music from the Golden Age' is the full title of this programme, played on the beautiful and colourful baroque organ of the church of San Hipólito in Cordoba. The main composers here are the Portuguese Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (1555-1635) and Spaniard Francisco Correa de Arauxo (1584-1654), and types of work represented are the Tiento (Spanish ricercar-like piece with elements of toccata or fantasia style) and Glosas (variations, in these cases on Latin hymn melodies). The 'choral' bit of the subtitle simply refers to the sung alternatim verses in the variation sequences.

That's the factual bit over and so, to get to the point, the results are fabulous. The beautifully vivid Cordoba instrument is ideally suited to these dashing examples of Iberian baroque organ music, and Martin Neu's playing is superb – stylish, full of panache and imagination. Of the eight works on the disc, several of them ambitious and extended pieces, my own favourites are: Correa de Arauxo's Tiento y Discurso de medio registro de dos Baxones de Octavo Tono' (better get used to some long titles), a dramatic and colourful work with an almost Bachian opening but developed with increasingly extravagant ornamentation (track 3). Then comes Coelho's 'Ave Maris Stella' (track 4) consisting of imaginative variations on the hymn tune, alternating with sung verses as mentioned above; it sounds for all the world as if inspired by Monteverdi's movement of that title in the Vespers of 1610. Again, the result is splendid.

My last favourite is the final work, Correa de Arauxo's 'Tiento Tercera de Sexto tono sobre la primera parte de la Batalla de Morales', a piece of stunning brilliance, variety and drama. According to its title and the booklet notes, it's based on a lost work by Morales, but that's really a bit of a cheek because, like nearly all the 'battle' pieces of the renaissance and baroque, it owes just about everything to Janequin's wonderful chanson 'La Guerre'. But Correa's development of the work for organ is still a knockout, especially when played like this and on an instrument that couldn't be better suited to the task.

In addition to the three pieces described, the rest of the programme is a well-judged selection varying between excitement and meditation. The Ensemble Officium vocal group, directed by William Rombach, do their job very well, booklet notes are excellent, texts and translations are supplied for the few choral sections, and recorded sound is outstanding. This recording makes such an impact, and the organist's performance is so distinguished, that it had me searching to see what else Martin Neu has recorded. The answer, at the time of writing, is: very little so far. I hope that he and his recording company will be rectifying this in the near future. In the meantime, this is a brilliant and inspiring contribution to the catalogues.

Andrea Lucchesini ist mir bereits seit Ende der 80er Jahre ein Begriff, hat es aber nie in die erste Riege der sogenannten „großen“ Pianisten geschafft – eine der unerklärlichen Dinge in der öffentlichen Wahrnehmung von Künstlern generell, wer es an die Spitze schafft, oder eben nicht.
Dabei zeigt sich gerade in seiner Schubert-Exegese, dass er hier auf jeden Fall zu den großen Interpreten zu rechnen ist (und, halten zu Gnaden, deutlich besser ist als bspw. ein K. Zimerman). Er findet den rechten Ton, hält die divergierenden Elemente in der Sonate wunderbar in Balance, verzärtelt nicht, gibt dem Düsteren den notwendigen Raum (was W. Youn in der fast zeitgleich erscheinenden Aufnahme nicht gelingt) und lässt uns immer wieder doch auch teilhaben an jenen himmlischen Längen, denen er seine pianistische Subtilität angedeihen lässt. Lucchesini erfindet die Sonate jetzt nicht neu (und ist nicht so innovativ wie Buniatishvili, nicht so apokalyptisch wie Richter), liefert aber eine in sich gänzlich stimmige, uneitle Interpretation ab, die sich mit den großen Interpretationen messen lassen kann.
Ähnlich überzeugend in den drei Klavierstücken, deren dramatisches Nach-vorwärts-drängen er zwingend darstellt, ohne ihr lyrisches Potential darob zu vernachlässigen.
Ein wirklich großer (Schubert-) Interpret, ungerechterweise im Schatten so manches „großen Kollegen“.