Symphonie der Tausend-Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 is a work of exceptions. Seen from the outside this is true of the forces that are used: with its three choirs eight soloists and an orchestra of far more than one hundred musicians there are few similar works in the annals of music. This cast of performers determines the second exceptional element of the work the mix of instrumental and vocal characteristics that makes it to the prototype of a 'vocal symphony' which - as Mahler put it - 'is sung from beginning to end'. In turn the texts that are sung influence the structure of the whole replacing as it were the usual four movements of a symphony with twostrongly divergent 'parts'. And finally as if to emphasize this divergence the texts used - the hymn Veni creator spiritus in the first part and the final scene of Goethe's Faust in the second - are not only written in two languages but also separated in their origins by more than one thousand years. Thus it is a work of extremes and a work of contradiction. It seems however that it was exactly these distinctive features that lifted the symphony above the others and convinced Mahler that his Symphony No. 8 was 'the greatest' work 'that I have composed'. It is an understandable coincidence that he thus raised Symphony No. 8 to the same rank within his oeuvre as Goethe who claimed that the drama was his 'Hauptgeschäft' [main work] did with Faust. Even after composing his late works Mahler retained his belief that Symphony No. 8 was his 'opus summum'. (Christian Wildhagen)

Violin 1-Dvorák’s “Slavonic Rhapsodies” Op.45 were composed in 1878 and issued by the publisher Simrock Berlin the following year. These three independent orchestral works (in D major G minor and A-flat major) were published with the same opus number and mark the beginning of his so-called Slavonic period.The “Slavonic Rhapsody” Op.45/1 in D major now appears in an Urtext edition. The editor Robert Simon has made use of the first edition authorised by the composer as the principal source of his new scholarly-critical edition.- A work marking the beginning ofDvorák’s so-called Slavonic period- Urtext edition incorporating every known source- Foreword (Eng/Cz/Ger) and Critical Commentary (Eng) by the editor- Full score & parts (BA10401) available for sale

Enigma-Edward Elgars berühmte ?Enigma?-Variationen entstanden zwischen 1898 und 1899. Es handelt sich um eine Sammlung von Variationen über ein eigenes Thema. Jede der Variationen ist einem engen Freund des Komponisten gewidmet (?Dedicated to my Friends Pictured