SKU: HL.49011017

Text in German.

SKU: HL.49044151

ISBN 9790001154123. UPC: 888680042264. 8.25x11.75x0.043 inches. German.

Lately, the 'choir pope' Clytus Gottwald has increasingly arranged late Romantic repertoire pieces for a cappella choir. He said: 'The idea to make music from around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century accessible to choirs in transcriptions emerged from the understanding that choral a cappella music had been underdeveloped at that time.' In order to realise this idea, Gottwald focussed on pieces from Wagner, Mahler via Ravel, Debussy to Messiaen and Holliger. This arrangement is based on an original piano song by Paul Hindemith on a poem by Else Lasker-Schuler, and its soft and expressive sound makes it particularly suitable for a choral setting.

SKU: BR.PB-5622-07

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822-1882) bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar.

ISBN 9790004215197. 6.5 x 9 inches.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: BR.OB-4794-19

ISBN 9790004321744. 10 x 12.5 inches.

SKU: AP.6-438260

ISBN 9780486438269. English.

An instant and overwhelming success upon its first performance in 1893, Hänsel and Gretel has captivated audiences of all ages ever since. Engelbert Humperdinck combined the simplicity of German folk tunes with the sophistication of Wagnerian technique in a fairy-tale opera, based on the story by the Brothers Grimm. Richard Strauss, who conducted the premiere, proclaimed it a masterpiece of the highest quality. Broadcast from Covent Garden in 1923, it was the first complete opera ever aired on radio, and eight years later it was the first to be transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera.