News

After many years, the Spanish cellist Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas finally returned to Germany: on October 6 and 7, he was acclaimed by the audience for his interpretation of the rarely performed 2nd Cello Concerto by Dmitri Kabalevsky with the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz conducted by Guillermo García Calvo;  and between October 19 and 24, he gave five brilliant performances of Edouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto, together with the New Lausitz Philharmonic Orchestra and Ewa Strusińska.

Great joy among all artists that with the start of the new season concerts and performances for live audiences are possible again!

For example, Svetoslav Borisov conducted a new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Magdeburg Theatre on September 19; Zofia Neugebauer made her debut at the Konzerthaus Dortmund with the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin on September 12 and performed with the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra conducted by Johannes Klumpp on 21 September. Piotr Pławner was enthusiastically acclaimed at the season opening concert of his Silesian Chamber Orchestra Katowice and Ewa Strusińska made her debut at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in August, conducted the Staatskapelle Halle for the first time as well as five symphony concerts of the New Lausitz Philharmonic in September. Ania Vegry sang Gilda in a new production of Rigoletto at the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau on September 11. And it continues in October and November!

Several instrumentalists have joined UR classics during the last months. Now UR classics is adding another conductor to her roster: As an artist, Florian Csizmadia holds the position of Music Director at the Theater Vorpommern and Philharmonisches Orchester Vorpommern, located in the cities of Stralsund and Greifswald. As a researcher, he is the author of significant works of music history and performance practice. „With wonderful sound intensity, captivating, inspiring“ (Beethoven), „really grandiose and with unheard intensity“ (Britten), „singing, gripping romantic tone“ (Elgar) – writes the press about his performances. We are looking forward to our collaboration!

“In a word: exceptionally promising!“ – That was what the Neue Hannoversche Presse wrote after a concert of the new hope of trombone playing, the 20-year-old Polina Tarasenko with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. We are very happy to add the Ukrainian prize winner of many competitions to our roster, starting on July 1, 2021 and thereby increasing our spectrum – after keyboard, string and wind instruments – by a brass instrument. Welcome!

A few days ago, the first CD of a new cycle has been released in which the Feininger Trio combines Johannes Brahms‘ three piano trios with works of younger Viennese composers: Alexander Zemlinsky, Ernst Krenek and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. On this first CD, the trio op. 101 by Brahms is paired with Zemlinsky’s trio op. 3. The first reviews particularly underline the „extremely elegant approach and beautiful tone“ and also the musicians‘ ability to fuse their evident individuality into a perfectly united ensemble sound. Johannes Brahms: Klaviertrio Nr. 3, op. 101; Alexander von Zemlinsky: Klaviertrio op. 3, Feininger Trio (Christoph Streuli; Violine, David Riniker, Cello, Adrian Oetiker, Klavier); 1 CD CAvi 8553489.

The highlight of long-term cooperation between the label eda records and Deutschlandfunk Kultur: on June 4, the world premiere recordings of all songs and melodramas by the Polish-Jewish composer Szymon Laks (1901 – 1983) – long known primarily for the account of his survival „Music of Another World“ – will be released.

Owing to the outstanding quality of the music as well as of the Polish and French texts, but above all against the background of the experiences that flowed into them and make them a testimony to deeply moving humanism, these works deserve a special place in the musical history of the twentieth century.

Performers: Ania Vegry, soprano; Dominique Horwitz, speaker; Katarzyna Wasiak, piano

More information about CD on EDA records webpage

The new CD of the duo Brüggen-Plank was released this January. Its centerpiece is Beethoven’s final violin Sonata, the tenth, op. 96 in G major. It is superbly and meaningfully surrounded by the Sonata in G major Op. 5 by Jan Václav Voříšek and the Sonata in F minor by Archduke Rudolph of Austria. As with the recordings of works by Szymanowski and Enescu, the critics are full of superlatives: “two really brilliant musicians”, “greatly played and absolutely worth hearing”, “a listening pleasure” “finely tuned interaction, elegance and sensitivity”, “a compelling and intelligent program idea”. The CD has been released by Audax Records:

Duo Brüggen-Plank Beethoven, Voříšek, Archduke Rudolph Sonatas for Violin and Piano (Audax Records webpage)

UR classics is growing further! We are very happy to welcome at the beginning of this year the Feininger Trio on our roster. Founded in 2005 by Adrian Oetiker (pianist) and the Berliner Philharmoniker Christoph Streuli (violinist) and David Riniker (violoncellist), the trio is a regular guest at many European festivals and concert series. The stylistic variety and the expressive and gripping playing of the trio is documented on a number of recordings with Czech and French piano trios, in a program with actress Katharina Thalbach and on the recently finished recording of trios by Brahms, Korngold, Zemlinsky and Roslavecz. Welcome!