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Die Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Mozart: Overtures (2024)

Posted By: delpotro
Die Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Mozart: Overtures (2024)

Die Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Mozart: Overtures (2024)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 310 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 153 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:02:02
Classical | Label: BIS

From the mid-seventeenth century onwards, the overture became an orchestral piece intended to precede a large-scale dramatic work. This recording brings together twelve overtures from Mozart’s operas. They foreshadow the action, sometimes stylistically, sometimes by quoting themes that will appear later, to create a dramatic impression before we even see anything on stage – think of the memorable overtures to Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte. The twelve overtures brought together here cover 21 years of Mozart’s career: from Mitridate, composed when he was just 14, which testifies to the young composer’s familiarity with the galant style then in vogue, to La Clemenza di Tito (1791), the high point of his work in the opera seria genre that was to disappear with him, not forgetting masterpieces such as Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Francesco Durante: Neapolitan Music for Christmas, Vol. 2 (2012)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Francesco Durante: Neapolitan Music for Christmas, Vol. 2 (2012)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Francesco Durante: Neapolitan Music for Christmas, Vol. 2 (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 325 Mb | Total time: 70:27 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | 777 734-2 | Recorded: 2011

The Kölner Akademie under its proven conductor Michael Willens now presents more atmospheric Christmas compositions by Francesco Durante, one of the greatest Neapolitan church composers of the first half of the eighteenth century. Durante continued the Neapolitan tradition of composing Christmas cantatas or motets, with a series of vocal works that he assigned to the category of the ‘Pastorale’ in order to indicate their relation to the Feast of Christmas and to the shepherds in the field.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Francesco Durante: Neapolitan Music for Christmas, Vol. 1 (2011)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Francesco Durante: Neapolitan Music for Christmas, Vol. 1 (2011)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Francesco Durante: Neapolitan Music for Christmas, Vol. 1 (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 308 Mb | Total time: 72:51 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | 777 571-2 | Recorded: 2010

Francesco Durante was one of the great Neapolitan church composers and teachers during the first half of the eighteenth century in Naples. He chose to focus on sacred music and his Magnificat in B flat major is doubtless the best known, most beloved, most performed, and most recorded work by him among the Neapolitan Christmas compositions on volume 1.

Kolner Akademie, Michael Alexander Wilens - Jacques Offenbach. Operettas in one act. Le Violoneux. Le 66 (2023)

Posted By: ciklon5
Kolner Akademie, Michael Alexander Wilens - Jacques Offenbach. Operettas in one act. Le Violoneux. Le 66 (2023)

Kolner Akademie, Michael Alexander Wilens - Jacques Offenbach. Operettas in one act. Le Violoneux. Le 66 (2023)
FLAC (tracks), Lossless | 1:26:10 | 374 Mb
Genre: Classical

"Salut aux opérettes de M. Jacques Offenbach!" This is how effusively the great Parisian music journal Le Menestrel greeted the newly opened Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens under the direction of the composer Jacques Offenbach in 1855: "Here is the showcase of Mr. Jacques Offenbach's products."

Michael Alexander Willens, Kolner Akademie - Hoffmann & Witt: Symphonies (2014)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kolner Akademie - Hoffmann & Witt: Symphonies (2014)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - E.T.A. Hoffmann: Symphony, Overtures; Friedrich Witt: Sinfonia in A (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 303 Mb | Total time: 61:39 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 777 208-2 | Recorded: 2014

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was one of the most important figures of the Romantic movement, inspiring such later composers as Robert Schumann (Kreisleriana), Léo Delibes (Coppélia), Jacques Offenbach (The Tales of Hoffman), and Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (Nutcracker) through his fantastic tales. Yet Hoffmann was a composer in his own right, and he had modest success with his operas Undine and Aurora, along with his Symphony in E flat major, and various vocal and chamber pieces. Hoffmann's symphony, the Overture to Undine, and the Overture and March from Aurora are programmed on this 2015 CPO release with the Symphony in A major by Friedrich Witt, a contemporary of Hoffmann who focused his energies almost entirely on instrumental music.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Anton Eberl: Piano Concertos Op. 32 & Op. 40 (2011)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Anton Eberl: Piano Concertos Op. 32 & Op. 40 (2011)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Anton Eberl: Piano Concertos Op. 32 & Op. 40 (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 221 Mb | Total time: 62:03 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 777 354-2| Recorded: 2008

Anton Eberl is often referred to when discussing contemporaries of Beethoven and Mozart. He was one of Beethovens leading rivals in the field of instrumental music, but unfortunately most of his work has disappeared. Having studied with Mozart there was no other composer whose works were more frequently passed off a Mozarts than Anton Eberl. The Piano Concertos opp. 32 and 40 presented here are performed on a period pianoforte and follow the model of the solo concerto developed toward the end of the eighteenth century as realised exemplarily and individually in Mozarts Piano Concertos.

Kolner Akademie - C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat, Auf, schicke dich, recht feierlich & Ammonia fortunata (2023)

Posted By: ciklon5
Kolner Akademie - C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat, Auf, schicke dich, recht feierlich & Ammonia fortunata (2023)

Kolner Akademie - C.P.E. Bach: Magnificat, Auf, schicke dich, recht feierlich & Ammonia fortunata (2023)
FLAC (tracks), Lossless / MP3 320 kbps | 1:09:04 | 314 / 158 Mb
Genre: Classical

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach was music director of five of Hamburg's principal churches from 1768 until his death in 1788. It was a strenuous and risky position of great responsibility. He was to make church services as attractive as possible with performances of his own original compositions alongside those of his contemporaries, so the faithful would show up in droves to church.

Davit Melkonyan, Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Bernhard Romberg: Cello Concertos (2015)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Davit Melkonyan, Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Bernhard Romberg: Cello Concertos (2015)

Davit Melkonyan, Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Bernhard Romberg: Cello Concertos (2015)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 259 Mb | Total time: 58:36 | Scans included
Classical | Label: CPO | # 777 969-2 | Recorded: 2015

World-Premeire Recordings Rombergs Cello Concertos. Sic transit gloria mundi all those who occupy themselves with Bernhard Rombergs life and work are immediately reminded of this traditional piece of wisdom. At the beginning of the nineteenth century he was acclaimed as an excellent virtuoso on the violoncello and recognized as one of the most important composers of his times. Even during his lifetime, however, he was forced to experience how his star declined, his playing style was regarded as old, and his compositions vanished from concert programs.

Tobias Koch, Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Emilie Mayer: Piano Concerto & Overtures (2023)

Posted By: delpotro
Tobias Koch, Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Emilie Mayer: Piano Concerto & Overtures (2023)

Tobias Koch, Kölner Akademie & Michael Alexander Willens - Emilie Mayer: Piano Concerto & Overtures (2023)
WEB FLAC (tracks) - 343 Mb | MP3 CBR 320 kbps - 244 Mb | Digital booklet | 01:06:49
Classical | Label: CPO

„Women who compose independently are rare in the music world. As abundant as the literary world is with female talent, the musical scene has few to champion, and among these few, Emilie Mayer is at the top. Her prolific output resembles a wellspring. She transforms every sensation, every feeling and every emotion to music.“ Elisabeth Sangalli-Marr (c. 1828–1901) described Emilie Mayer’s unique position in the music world of the time with these words in a Biographische Skizze (biographical sketch) published in 1877. Indeed, no other composer of her generation was so unimpressed by patriarchal gender conceit and rigid role attributions as „Europe’s greatest female composer“ (as Emilie Mayer is described in the subtitle of a recently published biography).

Ronald Brautigam, Michael Alexander Willens, Kolner Akademie - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25 (2011)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Ronald Brautigam, Michael Alexander Willens, Kolner Akademie - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25 (2011)

Ronald Brautigam, Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 24 & 25 (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 231 Mb | Total time: 55:29 | Scans included
Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-1894 | Recorded: 2010

Composed in 1786, the Piano Concertos Nos 24 in C minor and 25 in C major are regarded as two of Mozart's finest achievements in the genre. Both are large-scale works, with durations of more than 25 minutes each – the C major concerto is in fact one of the most expansive of all classical piano concertos, rivalling Beethoven’s fifth concerto. Their grandeur immediately made them popular fare in the concert hall – Mendelssohn, for instance, had No.24 in his repertoire through the 1820s and 1830s – and new recordings appear regularly. It is nevertheless relatively rare to hear them performed on original instruments and with orchestral forces corresponding to what Mozart himself would have been familiar with.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 12: Johann Melchior Molter (2020)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 12: Johann Melchior Molter (2020)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 12: Johann Melchior Molter (2020)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 377 Mb | Total time: 70:44 | Scans included
Classical | Label: ARS Produktion | # ARS 38 252 | Recorded: 2017

Thuringia-born Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) is at best known as the composer who wrote some of the earliest concertos for the clarinet, which had just been invented at the time. Otherwise, the practical exploration of the oeuvre of the long-time Karlsruhe court kapellmeister is still in its early stages. In the highly acclaimed series 'Forgotten Treasures' at ARS PRODUKTION, Michael Alexander Willens and his Kolner Akademie present some of the concertos and orchestral works in first recordings, which once again make us take notice because of their above-average quality and remarkable inventiveness.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 4: Johann Wilhelm Wilms (2007)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 4: Johann Wilhelm Wilms (2007)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 4: Johann Wilhelm Wilms (2007)
EAC | FLAC | Tracks (Cue & Log) ~ 333 Mb | Total time: 75:34 | Scans included
Classical | Label: ARS Produktion | # ARS 38 024 | Recorded: 2006

Auf die Frage nach seinem Lieblingsinstrument hätte Johann Wilhelm Wilms nur antworten können: das Orchester.
Wahrscheinlich klingt diese Auskunft ziemlich sonderbar bei einem Komponisten, der doch als junger Pianist die Nummer Eins unter den Klaviervirtuosen und -pädagogen seiner Wahlheimat Amsterdam gewesen ist und hier auch über Jahrzehnte als Flötist geschätzt wurde; doch sie ist mindestens ebenso einleuchtend, hört man erst eines seiner Werke für Orchester: jede Seite einer wilmsschen Partitur singt auch von der Lust ihres Autors, seine musikalischen Gedanken durch ein Ensemble ausgesucht fähiger Instrumentalisten darstellen zu lassen.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 11 - Mandolinenkonzerte (2013)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 11 - Mandolinenkonzerte (2013)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 11 - Mandolinenkonzerte: Barbella, Giuliani, Hoffmann (2013)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 268 Mb | Total time: 59:30 | Scans included
Classical | Label: ARS Produktion | # ARS 38 092 | Recorded: 2010

The waning of the era of lute player in the early 18th century coincided with the rise of the smallest member of the lute family, the soprano lute, also known as the mandolin, mandola or leutino in Southern Italy, especially in Naples, the city of music. In the following decades, the city of Naples, with it's famous conservatories, saw the birth of a number of compositions for mandolin. Many distinguished composers set out to discover the new possibilities this instrument offered.

Michael-Alexander-Willens-Kolner-Akademie-Forgotten-Treasures-Vol-10

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael-Alexander-Willens-Kolner-Akademie-Forgotten-Treasures-Vol-10

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 10: D´Avimare, Petrini, Steibelt (2012)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 360 Mb | Total time: 75:12 | Scans included
Classical | Label: ARS Produktion | # ARS 38 108 | Recorded: 2010

Nagasawa delivers technically impressive and musically inspired interpretations. I am less enthusiastic about the orchestra whose playing I sometimes found rather dull, dynamically a bit flat and not very colourful. Even so, this disc deserves a positive reception because of the quality of the music and the performances by Masumi Nagasawa on a beautiful historical harp.

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 9: Virtuose Trompetenmusik (2010)

Posted By: ArlegZ
Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 9: Virtuose Trompetenmusik (2010)

Michael Alexander Willens, Kölner Akademie - Forgotten Treasures, Vol. 9: Virtuose Trompetenmusik (2010)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 361 Mb | Total time: 72:21 | Scans included
Classical | Label: ARS Produktion | # ARS 38 073 | Recorded: 2009

Die Werke von Koželuh, Schiedemayr und Fiala wurden auf einer von Robert Vanryne gebauten, auf Instrumenten aus Sammlungen in Berlin, Wien und London basierenden Rekonstruktion einer Klappentrompete eingespielt. Für die Werke von Verdi und Kreutzer wurde eine Trompete mit drei Wiener Ventilen und verschiedenen Bögen, mit denen das Instrument von As nach Bedarf tiefer gestimmt werden kann, verwendet. Das Instrument stammt von einem unbekannten Instrumentenbauer (möglicherweise aus Prag oder Kraslice um 1850).