KuK-Art.com

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This release is featured in the editorial Spotify playlist of handpicked new classical Releases - August 2, 2019

Spotify Editorial Staff

Bravo!

Bravo...Bravo...Bravo... Superbe. Merci.

A listener on YouTube

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***** Must buy

Absolutely beautiful. A must buy!

Richard Evans on Amazon.com - December 10, 2018
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

An atmospheric recording...

In this atmospheric recording from the beautiful medeaeval Maulbronn monastery Andrei Gavrilov plays a selection of delightful piano works by Fréderic Chopin. These include his consummate Klaviersonate Nr. 2 b-Moll op. 35, Étuden op. 10 and Balladen.

John Pitt on New Classics UK

***** Delightful piano works

This is an atmospheric recording from the beautiful medeaeval Maulbronn monastery (an UNESCO World Heritage Site in Germany), where Gavrilov plays a selection of delightful piano works by Fréderic Chopin. I like this release very much, cause its expressive and authentic. I felt while listening that Garvrilov is playing directly in front of me. That showed me an exceeding dramatical facet of Chopin's works.

A customer on Amazon.com

Very touched. Thank YOU!

'Halyna Myroslava' on YouTube about the movie with "Ave Maria" von Morten Lauridsen

Absolutely beautiful!

'Johanna K.' on YouTube about the movie with "Ave Maria" von Morten Lauridsen

A sumptuous CD

In this atmospheric concert recording from the convent church in Maulbronn in 2001, Giacomo Puccini's Messa di Gloria is performed by Willi Stein (tenor), Thomas Pfeiffer (baritone), Kantorei Maulbronn, and members of the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden & Freiburg, ably conducted by Juergen Budday. A sumptuous CD.

New Classics UK

***** 5 stars out of 5 stars

Customer Votes on EMusic

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Another great piano recital from K&K...This CD is a special one!

His easy virtuosity leaves him free to voice the chords at every moment, and there are many moments of sheer magic in all the chosen works. I would mention, for example, his compelling interpretation of one of the most elusive and problematic of Schubert's sonatas, the first movement thoughtfully dramatic, and the slow movement exquisite... This CD is a special one!

Dr. Peter Grahame Woolf, Musical Pointers UK

So soo sooo beautiful.. I love it!

Thessa Samosir on twitter (about Magdalena Müllerperth's performance of Ravel's "Jeux d'eau")

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***** A wonderful and delicate piece of music...

I wish to write this review not only praising the quality and beauty of music contained on this album but also to thank K&K Verlagsanstalt personally for their generosity towards me. I am a film student who has just finished producing my graduate film. During post production I sort through many different recordings of Schubert Impromptus in particular the Impromptu Op.90 No.3 in G flat major. I felt this music would be appropriate for my film as it holds a certain bitter sweet quality that is rarely found is seldom come across. I chose the recording of K&K's as I believed it to be the most beautiful, with the lovely expression contained in the performance and overall clarity of the piece. I contacted K&K shortly after hearing it and they were kind enough to grant me the use of their recording for which, I am forever grateful.
I cannot explain my gratitude towards K&K Verlagsanstal and also Franz Vorraber for such a virtuoso performance. All I can give is my support of their products and recommendation to others purchase their music.

'Glynncat' on Amazon.com

***** Beauty

This is real music... it's classic and its a beautiful melody... verry catchy and it's soothing. Pretty much just awesome!... not kiddnig.

'Holly Jo McCoy' on iTunes

Qualitative recording

This is a qualitative recording without background noise.

'TianSky' on iTunes

A sincere thumbs up to this most gifted of pianists...

This fascinating concert recorded live in the mystic Castle of Bad Homburg is a truly mystical tour-de-force showcasing the magnificent talents of this young pianist who will surely become a household name in the very near future. Tebenikhan is unfazed by the monumental difficult of Schubert's A Major sonata and he sails through it with the professionalism and aplomb of a seasoned master such as Jorge Bolet or Alfred Brendel. Even more wizardry is to be displayed in Prokofiev's Fourth Piano Sonata with the Toccata also receiving a lightning-quick interpretation. Tebenikhin leaves the best for last in the shape of Schumann's monumental Piano Sonata #3 and even in this work he comes off superbly with flying colours. Truly a disc to relish and a sincere thumbs up to this most gifted of pianists.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

Severin von Eckardstein Live at Duisburgs Mercatorhalle

The seriousness and intensity with which von Eckardstein imbues Schubert's Sonata in A Minor; the wealth of tone colours this winner of Brussels's Queen Elisabeth Music Competition draws from the C. Bechstein concert grand piano for Debussy's Images; the virtuosity of his interpretation of Medtner's sonata: all this really breathtaking. Ingo Hoddick states in an article published in the Rheinische Post: "Von Eckardstein is captivating through his music with clear tonal contours and his serene and passionate approach of playing the piano. He does it all with virtually no gimmickry or flamboyance - which cannot be said of many contemporary artists..." The CD also includes three poetic pieces by Prokofiev, Scriabin and Tchaikovsky. These encores offered to the euphoric audience demonstrate von Eckardstein's sensitivity in conjuring a magical atmosphere from a C. Bechstein concert grand piano.

Bechstein.com

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Updated every Friday with the very best classical new releases

The Spotify Editorial Team - March 18, 2022

A reference recording

Interpretation: ***** (5 out of 5)
Recording Quality: ***** (5 out of 5)
Status: Reference Recording

KULIMU - German Magazine for art, music and literature

Magnificently performed and recorded...

Fine Reduction and Fine Performance
Brahms' own piano reduction of his Requiem. It works wonderfully in this format and this recording is magnificently performed and recorded. This will not replace the orchestra version (and certainly was not meant to) but it allows one to hear the work in a new way...

Bachjscpe on Amazon.com

***** Certainly Five Stars!

Item getting today, 04/13/17. A very interesting interpretation of the famous Brahms German Requiem for piano duo, choir and soloists; the London version, in contrary to the later full orchestral, choir and soloists version. This chamber version makes this work more a delightful and receptable one during this Passion Time.

J. P. M. Smit on Amazon.com, April 13, 2017

5 stars out of 5 stars

Customer Votes on EMusic

Spohr'’s second oratorio concerns both:
the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement

This was Spohr’s second oratorio and was written in Kassel between 1825 and 1826. The libretto, in two parts, was by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (1769-1842) and concerns both the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement. The overture is a powerful utterance, finely put together, and orchestrated adeptly. The choral entries are often arresting, and the accompanied recitatives show awareness of oratorio antecedents but are sufficiently flexible to convince on their own terms. At its best the work impresses through a felicitous sense of word-setting and layering; the choral responses are indeed sensitively shaped. The fourth movement, with a tenor solo and chorus, calls for a repeated ‘Heilig’ and the chorus’s soft, reverential repetition vests the music with great reflectiveness and elegiac quality. Then too Spohr doesn’t stint the opportunities for some good old-fashioned fugal development. Its employment halts the narrative somewhat but is certainly incisive; that in the seventh section is very definitely reminiscent of Handel. Spohr shows in the Sinfonia introduction to the second part just how well he wrote for orchestral forces and in the Babylonian chorus (No.15) demonstrates a sure instinct for the dramatic crest of a movement. In the concluding fugal Hallelujah section he reprises the kind of Handelian statements he’d earlier established in the first part of the oratorio. There are some Mozartian touches here and there, more stentorian Beethovenian ones too, in addition to the sometimes pervasive Handelian aspect. ...

Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb International - www.musicweb-international.com

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The listener is engrossed in what is going on from first note to last

This enterprising German label has recently served up some wonderfully crafted chamber and choral performances and this discovery by Spohr is no exception. Apparently 'The Last Judgement' (Die letzten Dinge - 1825/6) was an extremely popular oratorio in its heyday but it unfortunately fell by the wayside and is little heard today. Spohr treats the text with reverence and respect and although the music rarely rises above the mundane, the soloists and Budday ensure that the listener is engrossed in what is going on from first note to last. This is a worthwhile revival from the Spohr canon which deserves much wider currency.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

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One of the best German choirs

The Maulbronner Kammerchor, conducted by Jurgen Budday, can serve as a model example of the best that there is in the German style of this art: roundly shaped clear phrases, deliberately designed shadings of dynamics, precise articulation an a homogeneous balance of well-cultured voices. These caracteristics are symptomatic, regardless of whether they are singing a Mendelssohn motet or a modern psalm setting, light in presentation but studded with thoroughly rehearsed effects.

The Jerusalem Post

***** Excellent and highly recommended

This a-cappella-recording contains an interesting collection of historical and contemporary choral works, excellently interpreted by the highly honored Maulbronn Chamber Choir, under the direction of Jürgen Budday. This project is incredibly exciting, contains a lot of new sounds and is absolutely diversified. This release is an absolute recommendation for all lovers of choral music.

'MichaelJG' at Barnes & Noble

What a juicy sound this choir makes at full throttle!

This Liebe & Leid program was recorded at Maulbronn Monastery in Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a very resonant space. It's in those echoes, in fact, that the charm of the release resides. This is a pretty good choir, to be sure; and a joyful noise is made in varied repertoire stretching from Robert Lucas de Pearsall's sumptuous "Great God of Love", to Eric Whitacre's tingly "Nox Aurumque", to Jaako Mantyjarvi's absorbing account of a true-to-life maritime disaster that took place on the Baltic.
What's more exciting, though, than any technical nuance or interpretive wrinkle is the high-octane sound of the Maulbronn singers performing in their very own sacred space. That's the draw, pure and simple. Texts and translations are available and necessary because the reverb cancels out some of the diction. But what a juicy sound this choir makes at full throttle!

Philip Greenfield - American Record Guide, April 2015

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Spotify Editorial

An excellent project and a grandiose Performance

K&K is not a label that comes readily to mind, but after listening to this version of Bruch's Oratorio, it is certainly one that should be given more scrutiny. German based, it is totally devoted to publishing outstanding concerts of mostly sacred works recorded live in the natural ambience of Maulbronn Monastery.
The aim of all this is to make the listener experience the intensity, not only of the music but of the occasion as well. Bruch's 'Moses', premiered in January 1895, is a truly eloquent and uplifting piece very much in the 'Elijah' tradition although I found the choral writing a hint Mendelssohnian. Apparently, Brahms did not think very highly of it but Bruch revealed that it was the fruit of inner strength that enabled him to complete this work.
I enjoyed the work immensely notwithstanding Brahms' advice and found much to savour in the memorable tunes that permeate the solo numbers with Moses' death particularly moving. Both soloists and choir rise magnificently to the occasion, delivering performances that are grandiose yet saturated with a humanity that was so evident in Israel's rapport with God. The Russian Chamber Philharmonic play full bloodedly and with conviction under Jurgen Budday, who while keeping a tight reign on proceedings, allows the performance to flow with a natural ease.
An excellent project that deserves every plaudit for its unique Enterprise.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

An Elijah as a devout and moving experience...

This Elijah is both: calming and very beautiful (listen to the octet 'Denn er hat seinen Engeln befohlen' or the divine quartet 'Wirf dein Anliegen auf den Herrn'). Of course once Elijah has done his bit and the Real God performed the much asked-for miracle, the choir are full of joy and sing their hearts out. But this incident typifies this whole performance. Although it was recorded live there is neither any evidence of an audience present nor any tangible sense of occasion in this performance, but there is a strong sense of being in a place of worship, not just in occasional glimpses of the monastery's lavish acoustic but also in Jürgen Budday's restrained direction, allowing his singers to relish the work's more devout moments and never trying to force the pace. So we have some of the slowest tempi on disc. The choir clearly are at ease with Budday's approach and produce a glorious luminosity in such reflective choruses as 'Siehe, der Hüter Israels'. Also the superb soloists are all utterly convincing in their roles: Jolanta Michalska-Taliaferro is a magnificently wicked Queen as she spits out her venom against Elijah, while Heidi Elisabeth Meier could hardly be more angelic as she calmly exhorts Elijah to 'Rest in the Lord' (after his profoundly moving 'Es ist genug'). Polished orchestral playing further enhances Budday's interpretation of the work as a profound statement of Christian faith, while the recording is as flawless as one would expect from a state-of-the-art studio, let alone a 12th-century monastery.

Marc Rochester, Gramophone Magazine

***** Excellent

5 Stars (out of 5 Stars)

Featured in Napster's Playlist "Best of Mozart"

Napster, October 2016

***** 5 stars out of 5 stars

Customer Votes on iTunes

***** Wonderful beyond words

Utterly, utterly divine. The most beautiful and serene choral singing I have heard in many years. Moving beyond words with voices soaring to perfection offset by basso profoundo deeps. Sheer pleasure. A real experience. Strongly recommended.

'R. M. Lane' on Amazon.uk

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Qobuz

An extraordinary sense of choral blend...

Their quality pianissimos and sustained ritards are among the most pleasing and best in the business
The Maulbronners have an extraordinary sense of choral blend, and just the right balance between the parts, too. Their quality pianissimos and sustained ritards are among the most pleasing and best in the business.

D. Hugh Rosenbaum on Amazon.uk

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A fine compilation

This fine compilation of show stopping organ works is done full justice by the imposing Bad Homburg Church Organ played with relish and gusto by Ulrike Northoff. Starting off with Bach, appropriately enough, she gives a titanic interpretation of the 'Great' Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 542. The rarely heard Sonata by Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel also comes across quite nicely as does an interesting discovery by Christian Rinck, a rather obscure name whose Concerto for organ (originally for flute) certainly warrants some attention. We finally conclude with some Mendelssohn, his fourth sonata which comes across very well played indeed. K&K's presentation is quite excellent with expansive notes and some very striking photographs. The sound is very vivid and immediate although some boom is also detected due to the large, cavernous acoustic.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

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***** Wonderful

I think this is the most beautiful music composed and performed. Fortunately it comes with a translation of the Latin.

A. H. Eschenfelder on Amazon.com
(Verified purchase of Gounod's Missa Solemnis)

Wonderfully performed

Charles Gounod's first passion was for clerical music and his Messe solonelle de Sain-Cecile is one of his most beautiful works, filled with marvellous melodies. Gioacchino Rossini turned to religious music later in life and his Stabat Mater is almost opera-like with its sweeping melodies and drifting rhythms. Both pieces are wonderfully performed in this concert recording in which the glorious Maulbronn Choir, conducted by Juergen Budday, is joined by soloists Svetlana Strezeva (soprano), Jolanta Michalska-Taliaferro (mezzo soprano), Willi Stein (tenor), Nikita Storojev (bass) and members of the SWR-symphony-orchestra Baden-Baden & Freiburg.

John Pitt, New Classics UK

***** Very Happy

Beautiful recording and so happy I was able to find this for my mother…. At 87 she does not ask for much! But she wanted to hear this.

Daragh Coulter on Amazon.com
(Verified purchase of Gounod's Missa Solemnis)

***** Welcome Home

Just one of those major works that you always adored and never took the time to add to your library. For those of us getting to the more senior side of being senior citizens,my heart bursts with love on hearing the Sanctus. Every time!

'SENIORNERD' on eMusic.com about this recording of Gounod's Missa Solemnis

A memorable performance

Young players excel in compelling live performances of two favourite symphonies
The members of the New Symphony Orchestra, drawn from the Sofia Radio Orchestra, are a comparatively young ensemble founded in 1971. The writer of the insert-note suggests that their musical style is "sentimental, due to the members' experience recording film music". Sorry, but there is no trace of sentimentality in either performance. Instead, here is a superb example of the intense concentration that can come with live musicmaking from eager young players, well rehearsed, in front of a receptive audience.
In the Scottish Symphony, the character of the playing combines an effervescing vitality and a natural Slavonic warmth, particularly from the full-toned strings. Petko Dimitrov shapes Mendelssohn's lovely lyrical opening with an appealing simplicity, and in the first climax of the vivace of the exposition his surge of animation has the players all but scampering in their exhilaration. The one snag is that the important exposition repeat is, alas, omitted. The scherzo sparkles, the slow movement is beautifully shaped yet has a sombre underlay which prevents any suggestion of blandness, and after the dancing vivacissimo the close of the finale is expansive, almost Klemperer-like in its spacious grandeur. Overall, a performance of much character.
Schubert's Unfinished is even finer, the epitome of Romanticism, the quiet opening mysterious, darkly evocative, yet with incisive drama soon to offset the lyricism. Here the exposition repeat is played, and used to build an onward propulsion which is very compelling. Dimitrov's modest change of pace for the exquisitely gentle opening of the second movement is perfectly judged, and the arrival of the secondary theme is beautifully prepared by the violins. The woodwind contributions, first the clarinet (2'06'') and the naturally following, equally delicate oboe (2'36'') are almost like a question and answer, before the drama of the bold trombone-dominated tutti (2'56'') which is arresting without being coarse.
But it is the gently ruminative quality of the playing - of wind and strings alike - that makes this performance so memorable. The interplay between apparent serenity and the music's bolder progress is like a contrast between twilight apprehension and the daylight assertion of life's irrepressible advance, with a haunting sense of resignation conveyed in the movement's guileless closing bars. The concert hall recording was made in simple 'two-track stereo' and the effect is real, slightly distanced, but tangible. Most rewarding.

Ivan March, Gramophone Magazine

An extraordinary reading that rises to the moment

The severe sound environment of the Maulbronn Abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the German state of Baden-Württemberg that dates to the twelfth century, has given rise to a series of recordings covering varying aspects of music from the Western concert tradition. That sound environment is put to intelligent use in this string quartet recital, which pairs well-worn pieces but gives them unusually intense interpretations that are heightened by the hard resonance of the sound. Sample the very beginning of the Schubert "String Quartet in D minor, D. 810" "Death and the Maiden", to get yourself into the disc; the opening chords might be described as slashing. Move on to the second-movement variation set built on the song that gives the quartet its name; where many quartets let a sort of debilitated gloom hang over much of the movement, everything here is a life-and-death struggle. The stronger of the two performances on the disc is that of Janácek's 1928 "String Quartet No. 2," subtitled "Intimate Letters," a hypersubjective work whose emotional content could have been drawn straight from one of Sigmund Freud's contemporaneous psychotherapy sessions. The work is as dissonant as almost any other of its period that does not completely reject tonality, but the dissonance is used in the service of untrammelled expression. The letters evoked are those between the composer and his married mistress. Yet the Amati Quartet's performance, ringing around the monastery walls, brings to mind, to use John le Carré's memorable simile, thoughts that are like birds stuck in a greenhouse. It's an extraordinary reading that rises to the moment offered by a specific performance space, and the disc as a whole, while not for those who like the emotional temperature of their classical music kept to medium, is decisively recommended to those wanting to try out the Maulbronn series.

James Manheim, All Music Guide

I enjoyed it tremendously

It took me completely unawares when the dramatic opening bars of "Death and the Maiden" gripped me by the throat and threatened immediate life-extinction; I felt as if I were living the story myself, and though no maiden, I could certainly relate to her death-obsessed plight. This version is almost orchestral in feeling. While it is true that there is a huge amount of reverb in this space - well, it is a monastery - this only partially accounts for the destructive vehemence that the Amati gives this work. They see and saw their way as if it were the world's last concert, or the devil himself was in the audience. I enjoyed it tremendously...

Steven E. Ritter, FANFARE Magazine

Another thumbs up for this extremely enterprising German label

The enterprising German label K&K has made a name for themselves by issuing critically acclaimed recordings of oratorios and other sacred works in the haunting location of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Maulbronn Monastery. This CD features two string quartets by masters in the genre, Franz Schubert and Leoš Janácek played by the legendary Amati Quartet, one of the finest ensembles currently recording. Both works come across quite beautifully in the sumptuous acoustic and as expected, the Amati play with their exemplary brilliance especially in the "Intimate Letters" which is certainly very hard to bring off. This is another thumbs up for this extremely enterprising German label.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

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A terrific performance...

A terrific performance and the equally rare chance to hear one of Europe's most thoughtful Ensembles. Sándor Veress has been overshadowed by his Hungarian compatriots, but on the rare occasions when I encounter his music I always find it worth hearing. His First Quartet, premiered in Prague in 1935 but written four years earlier, is demonstrably from the same soil as Bartók and Kodály, but quite individual. Its first movement is in slow-fast-slow form, after which comes an Andante and finally a highly rhythmic Vivo. The German based Orpheus Quartet gives a terrific performance to end this concert, recorded live in the convent at Maulbronn... The disc is worth pursuing for the rare Veress and the equally rare chance to hear one of Europe´s most thoughtful ensembles. Since the disc was made, the Orpheus has changed its second violinist and we have had the appalling news of the death of leader Charles-André Linale.

Tully Potter, The Strad UK

***** A real feeling of being in the concert

I first heard the Orpheus Quartet in Spain and have collected their studio recordings. I was eager to hear them again, and K&K's series of live concert recordings from Maulbronn has given me an opportunity to hear how they were playing two years on. However, whilst writing this review, I am saddened to learn from the Orpheus Quartet website that their leader, Charles-André Linale, was killed in a car crash last month. Chamber music is given in the lay refectory, and reverberation is long during pauses after Beethoven's sf chords, but you soon get used to that, and it is more than compensated for by the bloom on the sound - you have a real feeling of being there with the audience. The Orpheus four have exactly the right feeling for the not-easy Schubert Quartettsatz and Beethoven's Op. 59/2, which can be a long haul; with all repeats, it was gripping from beginning to end. In this June 2002 concert their novelty was a quartet by Sandor Veress, an excellent composer heard infrequently in UK. Without any studio editing, the accuracy of these performances is remarkable and testifies to the good health of this top string quartet in what, it transpires, will have been one of their last recorded concerts with their multinational founder members; the exceptional performance of the Beethoven a worthy memorial for Charles-André Linale.

Andy Smith on Amazon.com

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BEST OF CLASSICAL MUSIC - Popular classical melodies interpreted by outstanding musicians and orchestras of our time

Curated by the Amazon Music Editorial Team

***** BEST RECORDING

This is the best recording I have found of Dvorak's String Serenade!

A customer on iTunes

***** My favourite

Your version of Dvorak's String Serenade is my favourite... Gotta loveit...damn! This guy is so good!

A listener on YouTube

***** An ideal introduction

An ideal introduction to one of Poland's most talented and exciting young conductors, whose work has been compared to that of Carlos Kleiber and Svjatoslav Richter.

New Classics UK

***** Five Stars

PLEASED. ORDER.

Laura J Hefner on Amazon.com (Verified purchase of the Audio CD)

BEST SELLER on Amazon.com

February 16, 2015: Dvorak's String Serenade Op.22 is BEST SELLER on Amazon.com:
Best Sellers Rank 1 in 'Symphonies / Romantic'
Best Sellers Rank 2 in 'Periods / Romantic'
Best Sellers Rank 3 in 'Symphonies / Classical'

***** Superb

I heard this piece (Dvorak's String Serenade) at a summer concert in Symphony Hall and was thoroughly enchanted by it. I downloaded it on to my ipod and it features regularly. It is a very melodic, uplifting, life-enhancing piece, superbly played.

Mr. P. Skeldon on Amazon.uk (Verified Purchase)

A heady experience...

This beautifully-recorded CD brings together two fine works in what can only be termed as superb interpretations by Polish orchestras. K&K are an extremely enterprising German label who have given us some outstanding recordings in the choral, organ and piano and genre from such wonderful locations as centuries old monasteries so their new attention to orchestral music is very commendable indeed. Mozart's 'Linz' is one of those works were a carefully nuanced approach reaps considerable dividends as the great Peter Maag amply demonstrated. Przytocki is a consummate interpreter bringing a beautiful lift to the First movement and a busy energy to the Finale which are two miraculously charged movements. He is also in his element in the lovely Serenade for Strings by Dvořák which dances around quite ravishingly especially in the bucolic scherzo. This CD receives plaudits all around from me and it deserves a hearty recommendation. The presentation is beautiful with large photographs and the distinctive K&K colours provide for a heady experience which is reinforced by the interpretations.

Gerald Fenech on Classical Net

***** FAV DVORAK

The 'Beethoven Akademie Orchester' does Dvorak justice with its excellent performance of his serenade. The 2nd and 3rd movements are definitely my favorites.

'J Dog1945' on iTunes