{"title":"Challenge Classics","description":"\u003cp\u003eChallenge is an innovative producing and marketing company, who's aim is to provide the very best quality products for all lovers of original national and international classical, jazz and pop music. On our website you can find an overview of our artists, catalogue, series, tour information, history and new releases. Please feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions or comments on any aspect of our operations, and we will always do our very best to give you the information you require.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"cc72388-war-requiem","title":"War Requiem","description":"\u003cp\u003eNetherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra,\u003cbr\u003eNetherlands Radio Choir \u0026amp; Netherlands Children’s Choir\u003cbr\u003eJaap van Zweden\u003cbr\u003eReinbert de Leeuw\u003cbr\u003eConductor Netherlands Radio Choir: Celso Antunes\u003cbr\u003eConductor Netherlands Children’s Choir: Wilma ten Wolde\u003cbr\u003eEvelina Dobracheva soprano\u003cbr\u003eAnthony Dean Griffey tenor\u003cbr\u003eMark Stone baritone\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBritten - War Requiem\u003cbr\u003eDuring the late 14th and early 15th centuries, a church dedicated to the Archangel Michael was erected in Coventry. In 1918, it was designated a cathedral. The\u003cbr\u003ecathedral was almost entirely destroyed during a German air raid in 1940, with only the outer walls, bell tower and tomb of the first bishop remaining intact. These were\u003cbr\u003epreserved as a memorial. In the 1950s, the decision was made to incorporate the ruins in a new building. The first stone was laid by Queen Elizabeth II in 1956 and the new cathedral opened on May 25, 1962. Five days later, it was musically inaugurated with Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, in a performance broadcast live by the BBC.\u003cbr\u003eAt the time, Britten was probably the only British composer able to strike a collective chord with his countrymen – even though in his operas, he always sided with eccentrics and outcasts. As a pacifist and homosexual, he had been personally familiar with the conflict between the individual and establishment since the 1930s. Yet Britten was not a political activist, for he was decidedly a member of a generation that held its peace when confronted with the dark aspects of community, family or the military. Artistically, however, Britten was an activist, as witness his antithetical heroes: Peter Grimes, Albert Herring, Billy Budd and Owen Wingrave. At times, his political message was so encoded that it seemed like a message in a bottle for a better future.\u003cbr\u003eBritten’s political consciousness embedded a number of these hidden messages in the War Requiem in a way that only like minds would recognize themselves as\u003cbr\u003ebeing addressed. Take for instance the soloists he had in mind for the premiere of the War Requiem. To the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya, he confided that he\u003cbr\u003ewanted to bring together three soloists here as representatives of the countries that had suffered most in the war. Britten was thinking of an Englishman (the tenor\u003cbr\u003ePeter Pears), a German (the baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau) and a Russian (Vishnevskaya). The soloist group in no way reflected the Allied forces. On the contrary,\u003cbr\u003ethey were former enemies that came to stand before an imaginary reconciliation committee. Take for instance the last movement, Libera me, in which a fallen\u003cbr\u003eBritish soldier talks with a German soldier he has killed. Such understanding between enemies was bound to lead to problems. The Soviet authorities thought it was\u003cbr\u003einappropriate for Vishnevskaya to perform under such circumstances with a German and an Englishman. The combination of “‘Cathedral’ \u0026amp; Reconciliation with W. Germany” (as Britten called it) went too far. A replacement had to be found, and Heather Harper had but 10 days to learn the part.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625519940,"sku":"CC72388-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738625552708,"sku":"CC72388-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738625585476,"sku":"CC72388-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625618244,"sku":"CC72388-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625651012,"sku":"CC72388-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308043575620,"sku":"CC72388-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334541123908,"sku":"CC72388S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334541156676,"sku":"CC72388S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334541189444,"sku":"CC72388S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72388.jpg?v=1790122975"},{"product_id":"cc72596-schubert-winterreise-op-89-d-911","title":"Schubert: Winterreise op. 89, D. 911","description":"\u003cp\u003eA song cycle as self-portrait \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the autumn of 1823, when the illness that five years later would take his life revealed its full intensity, Schubert composed Die schöne Müllerin, on texts by the German poet Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827). Central in this cycle of 20 lieder is a wandering miller’s helper who very briefly holds the illusion that he has found happiness. His beloved, however, a beautiful miller’s daughter, turns her attention to a handsome hunter, and the disappointed miller’s helper drowns himself in a stream. \u003cbr\u003eAlso in 1823, Müller published the first 12 poems of a new cycle, Winterreise, in which he again presents a young man who has left his hearth and home. This time, the protagonist is not searching for happiness, but fleeing after misfortune in love. The second series of 12 poems would appear a short time later, and in 1827, the year before his death, Schubert set this cycle to music, incidentally following the order in which it appeared – in February, he wrote the first 12 lieder and it was only in October that he got to the second half. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThematically, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise are in full keeping with the Romantic movement that was bursting forth everywhere, a growing uneasiness with social and economic developments leading to among other things the glorification of wandering and a return to nature, both as a counterbalance to disillusionment with reality. While the first cycle initially exudes hope and joie de vivre, Winterreise is from the beginning dominated by fatalism and a longing for death. One of the most popular lieder in the cycle, Der Lindenbaum, seems nothing less than the call of suicide, through which the cycle links with the end of Die schöne Müllerin, where the miller’s helper is drawn to the water in the stream. \u003cbr\u003eIn part due to arrangements for the theatre and film, a tendency arose to see the Winterreise cycle as a monodrama about a rejected lover who wanders out of sorrow. The foundation of this is the first lied, Gute Nacht, in which we hear that in the month of May, love still smiled upon the poet, but then all his dreams were smashed and he decided to roam the world. We are not told what exactly had happened; nowhere in the cycle do we hear a reproof or an indication of “guilt”, not even from the protagonist. He tells us only that he withdraws from the vicinity of his former beloved because he expects he would otherwise be hunted by dogs. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738625945924,"sku":"CC72596-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738625978692,"sku":"CC72596-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738626011460,"sku":"CC72596-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738626044228,"sku":"CC72596-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738626076996,"sku":"CC72596-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308047933764,"sku":"CC72596-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334542827844,"sku":"CC72596S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334542860612,"sku":"CC72596S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334542893380,"sku":"CC72596S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72596.jpg?v=1790123017"},{"product_id":"cc72635-biber-bartok-berio-bach","title":"Biber - Bartok -  Berio - Bach","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is an invitation: an invitation to join me in an adventure. It would normally take place in the concert hall, because the combination of pieces I’m presenting to you here is not a typical programme for a CD. It’s an overwhelming recital that demands a great deal not only from me as the musician, but also from you as the audience. When I play this recital in a concert setting, which I’ve done on many occasions, I always find it to be a battle, where I’m reaching for my own limits and for the audience’s limits. But this is a constructive battle. The battle is the pathway and at the end of it we’re in a better place. From the stage, I can take the audience by the hand as stunning beauty alternates with uncomfortable and what can even be almost ugly sounds. But all of this is much harder on a CD, where it’s so easy to press the ‘forward’ button on the CD player… \u003cbr\u003eHowever, these are exactly the pieces I wanted to record and I’m grateful to Challenge Records for offering me the opportunity. This is a highly personal programme, and not just because I’m entirely on my own, with no pianist or orchestra. That was also the case on my previous disc, presenting violin solo music by Ysaÿe and Bach, but here the feeling is even stronger. It’s a programme of contradictions: the ostensible simplicity of Biber and Bach contrasting with the complexity of Bartók and Berio. It’s emotional but at the same time highly cerebral. In these contradictions I recognize myself. I don’t consider myself to be a violinist for whom virtuosity is the greatest aim; that is not why I became a violinist. But yet I’ve chosen a solo programme here. That is contradictory, but what we’re dealing with is greater music and not just greater virtuosity. This is my musical autograph. \u003cbr\u003eBach’s Chaconne is the focal point, to which the works of Bartok and Berio make strong references , making it the core of this programme. Biber’s Passacaglia provides focus, with its persistent repeated cadence of the four falling notes. This pulse underpins the entire recital: sometimes hidden and barely audible, like a sort of primeval pulse (as in the Berio), and sometimes quite clear.\u003cbr\u003eI’ve known Bartók’s Sonata since I was a youngster, when my teacher Philippe Hirschhorn used to play it at our home. It’s a piece that has always stayed with me. I even used to have Dénes Zsigmondy’s recording of the fugue as the welcoming music on my answering machine. It is a real masterpiece, with perfect form, and Bartók occasionally gives us a glimpse of a cosmos that he can see and hear even though we can’t quite yet. It’s the pinnacle of what is possible on the violin, without having virtuosity as its objective.\u003cbr\u003eThe consonance – or actually the battle – between two notes lies at the heart of Berio’s Sequenza VIII. This also presents us with a degree of ugliness. But after the powerful confrontations, as the music gradually subsides in volume – firstly with an ordinary mute and then with the even quieter practice mute – these two notes end up forming a brotherly union. The battle has led to some good after all. This is a really emotional moment\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738626404676,"sku":"CC72635-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738626437444,"sku":"CC72635-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738626470212,"sku":"CC72635-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738626502980,"sku":"CC72635-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738626535748,"sku":"CC72635-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5.1ch Surround","offer_id":56738626568516,"sku":"CC72635-41","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308048195908,"sku":"CC72635-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334543188292,"sku":"CC72635S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334543221060,"sku":"CC72635S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334543253828,"sku":"CC72635S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72635.jpg?v=1790123061"},{"product_id":"cc72543-symphony-no-2-lobgesang","title":"Symphony no. 2 'Lobgesang'","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTHE NETHERLANDS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA \u003c\/strong\u003eJan Willem de Vriend\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p6\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJudith van Wanroij \u003c\/strong\u003esoprano\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMachteld Baumans \u003c\/strong\u003esoprano\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePatrick Henckens \u003c\/strong\u003etenor\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChoir \u003c\/strong\u003eConsensus Vocalis\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChoir conductor \u003c\/strong\u003eKlaas Stok\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p6\"\u003eIt is June 1840, you are in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the church where the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach was once kapellmeister. You are there to attend the premiere of a piece of music on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. The successful composer Felix Mendelssohn will conduct his own music. Mild excitement takes hold of you; you feel that it is going to be a magnificent concert, with orchestra, choir, soloists. Finally, it starts. The trombones begin with a regal theme that resounds through the church. The orchestra takes over the theme. You are immediately swept up by, immersed in the music – an overwhelming experience. \u003cbr\u003eThat must certainly have been the experience of the audience at this first performance of Mendelssohn’s symphony-cantata, as he liked to describe it. That the beginning of the piece is so overawing, by the nature of the theme and scoring of wind instruments, is not something you immediately expect from a composer such as Mendelssohn. He is known more for refinement, a cultivated melancholy that is fascinating, but does not threaten to make off with you. And of course, there is the virtuosity, which never stoops to affectation and always remains functional.\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e1 \u003c\/span\u003eAs impressive as the regal trombone theme is, other passages of \u003cem\u003eLobgesang \u003c\/em\u003ehave probably moved audiences more deeply. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738628632900,"sku":"CC72543-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738628665668,"sku":"CC72543-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738628698436,"sku":"CC72543-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738628731204,"sku":"CC72543-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738628763972,"sku":"CC72543-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308057600324,"sku":"CC72543-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334545121604,"sku":"CC72543S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334545154372,"sku":"CC72543S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334545187140,"sku":"CC72543S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72543-1.jpg?v=1790123189"},{"product_id":"cc72548-handels-memories-a-selection-from-grand-concertos-op-6","title":"Handel's Memories - A selection from Grand Concertos op. 6","description":"\u003cp\u003eGeorge Frideric Handel arrived in England towards the end of 1710, encouraged by a group of music lovers excited by the extraordinary success he had achieved with his opera Agrippina in Venice. At the beginning of the 18th century, London was a very prosperous city in need of talent to modernize and revitalize its theatrical performances, and the German musician, who was then at the service of the Elector of Hanover (who would soon be crowned King of Great Britain), was the ideal candidate. \u003cbr\u003eFor many years, Handel was the most acclaimed composer of Italian opera in London, premiering at a rate of one show a year, and managing all aspects related to production, from the orchestra, which became one of the best in Europe, to the singers, with whom he did not always have optimal relationships. In 1733, he had a notorious clash with one of the most famous castrati of the time, Senesino, who founded, with the support of a good portion of the aristocracy, the Opera of the Nobility, determined to rival the German composer. Two Italian opera companies were too much for a city where this genre had seriously declined during the previous decade, hence the considerable losses they both accumulated during consecutive seasons. In 1737, Senesino’s opera closed permanently. Handel, exhausted by excessive work and the constant upsets, became seriously ill.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629026116,"sku":"CC72548-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738629058884,"sku":"CC72548-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738629091652,"sku":"CC72548-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629124420,"sku":"CC72548-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629157188,"sku":"CC72548-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308063564100,"sku":"CC72548-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334545940804,"sku":"CC72548S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334545973572,"sku":"CC72548S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334546006340,"sku":"CC72548S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72548-1.jpg?v=1790123230"},{"product_id":"cc72549-bruckner-symphony-no-8","title":"Bruckner Symphony No. 8","description":"\u003cp\u003eDespite the big differences between them, there is a certain kinship between Bruckner’s ‘official’ nine symphonies (the ones he decided to call ‘valid’): the broadly expansive themes with their lengthy build-up of tension and the expectant tremolo of the strings (first introduced by Beethoven in his Ninth Symphony) at the beginning, from which the main theme wells up. Bruckner often gives the singsong, sometimes distinctly lyrical second theme a contrapuntal second voice. The third theme, on the other hand, is often monolithic, full of clenched energy, that bursts out in unison and goes on to develop a huge rhythmic force. Then there are the long drawn-out Adagios with their heavenly cantilenas and the starkly contrasting, waggish Scherzos, almost smelling of earth. They are all just as characteristic of Bruckner’s compositions as the broadness of the codas in the outer movements, introduced by a soft roll of the timpanis. But despite the similarities, all his symphonies are fundamentally and completely different and are certainly not interchangeable. This can be said of each of the movements separately and of the entire work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629419332,"sku":"CC72549-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738629452100,"sku":"CC72549-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738629484868,"sku":"CC72549-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629517636,"sku":"CC72549-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629550404,"sku":"CC72549-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308065235268,"sku":"CC72549-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334547349828,"sku":"CC72549S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334547382596,"sku":"CC72549S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334547415364,"sku":"CC72549S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72549-1.jpg?v=1790123272"},{"product_id":"cc72552-bruckner-symphony-no-6","title":"Bruckner Symphony no. 6","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the early days of the symphonies history, there was nothing like the meticulousness of our approach to Bruckner’s work. On February 26, 1899, Gustav Mahler gave in Vienna the first performance of the Sixth, in his own version, in which he substantially reworked both the instrumentation and notes and showed no aversion to sweeping cuts. The first printed score of Bruckner’s Sixth appeared in the summer of 1899, however it deviated greatly from the original work. Largely responsible for this was Josef Schalk (1857-1900), a highly respected conductor in Vienna and an early Bruckner admirer (Bruckner often referred to him as “Herr Generalissimus”). Did Bruckner ever hear his “keckste” composition performed? That cannot be answered with any certainty.\u003cbr\u003eWe know that during a concert in Vienna on February 11, 1883, the Vienna Philharmonic performed only the Adagio and Scherzo, conducted by Wilhelm Jahn, but the composer possibly heard the complete symphony during the rehearsals – or perhaps in or around October 1882 during the orchestra’s\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629714244,"sku":"CC72552-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738629747012,"sku":"CC72552-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738629779780,"sku":"CC72552-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629812548,"sku":"CC72552-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738629845316,"sku":"CC72552-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308069560644,"sku":"CC72552-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334551445828,"sku":"CC72552S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334551478596,"sku":"CC72552S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334551511364,"sku":"CC72552S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72552-1.jpg?v=1790123316"},{"product_id":"cc72575-fidicinium-sacro-profanum","title":"Fidicinium Sacro-Profanum","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eH.I.F. Biber\u003cbr\u003eFidicinium Sacro-Profanum\u003cbr\u003eArs Antiqua Austria\u003cbr\u003eGunar Letzbor\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eGunar Letzbor Violine 1 \u0026amp; Leitung\u003cbr\u003eFriedrich Kircher Violine 2 (Sonaten 1-6)\u003cbr\u003eBarbara Konrad Viola 1 (Sonaten 7-12)\u003cbr\u003eMarkus Miesenberger Viola 1 (Sonaten 1-6) und Viola 2 (Sonaten 7-12)\u003cbr\u003eJan Krigovsky Violone\u003cbr\u003eHubert Hoffmann Laute\u003cbr\u003eWolfgang Zerer Orgel, Cembalo\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eH.I.F. BIBER: a genius, whose life story is for the most part unresearched, a violin virtuoso who raised the technique of violin playing in Austria to an incredibly high level, a man of incredible powers of imagination and the courage to venture on abstraction.\u003cbr\u003eThe complexity of his work is astonishing, his oeuvre encompasses a range from richly orchestrated church music, artfully elaborated chamber music, to virtuoso music for his personal solo instrument, the violin.Astonishingly, his work has only recently attained recognition on the professional concert scene. Moreover, the scientific and critical treatment of his works is limping far behind the significance of this remarkable Austrian musician.\u003cbr\u003eBiber was born in 1644 in Wartenberg (Str.z) Bohemia. His baptismal certificate was issued on 12 August. His father, Martin Biber, worked as a hunter at the Wartenberg Court and was thus a subject of the dynasty of the Counts of Liechtenstein. This noble family originated in Tyrol (Castel Corn, near Bozen\/Bolzano) and came to Bohemia and Moravia during the sixteenth century. We can only guess how and where Heinrich Ignaz received his first music lessons. During his schooldays, two teachers – which is to say musicians – were active in Wartenberg\/Str.z. Wiegand Knüffel, a notorious drunkard and ruffian, was appointed cantor and organist in 1656. He died in Wartenberg in 1675 as “former cantor”. It is verified that Johann Georg Teifel had been invested as church musician since 1670; the date when he succeeded his bibulous predecessor can no longer be specified. Whatever, Biber must have been in the aforementioned Wiegand Knüffle’s tutorship for some time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630009156,"sku":"CC72575-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738630041924,"sku":"CC72575-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738630074692,"sku":"CC72575-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630107460,"sku":"CC72575-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630140228,"sku":"CC72575-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308072247620,"sku":"CC72575-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334552527172,"sku":"CC72575S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334552559940,"sku":"CC72575S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334552592708,"sku":"CC72575S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72575-1.jpg?v=1790123360"},{"product_id":"cc72582-evensong","title":"Evensong","description":"\u003cp\u003eWas there anything left to be added to the score, could trumpeter Eric Vloeimans (Huizen, 1963) still tick off another musical goal anywhere?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHadn’t he achieved everything he could during an almost incredible career in Dutch and international jazz, a life in music that had already\u003cbr\u003ebrought him armfuls of awards, including – to mention just a few – a North Sea Jazz Bird Award, and the prestigious Boy Edgar Prize?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet’s picture Vloeimans for a moment, struggling with the aforementioned questions, a faraway look in his eyes. Yes, there was still a glimmer on the horizon, something grand, majestic and intangible, a musical piece as proof of mastery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd now, on this album, we can immerse ourselves in the result of these musings: his very own trumpet concerto, entitled Evensong, which Vloeimans wrote with the composer, arranger and pianist he admires, Martin Fondse. A piece, magnificently performed by the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, that we can regard without hesitation as a new monument in the trumpeter’s already huge and unfettered oeuvre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor how numerous are the guises in which we encountered Eric Vloeimans in the past decades? That of inspired leader of the ‘chamber jazz trio’ Fugimundi, with which Vloeimans provides jazz for the intimacy of the living room. That of frenzied trumpeter in the electric band Gatecrash, a combo that seeks the excitement and dynamics of the jazz as well as pop venues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630467908,"sku":"CC72582-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738630500676,"sku":"CC72582-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738630533444,"sku":"CC72582-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630566212,"sku":"CC72582-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630598980,"sku":"CC72582-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308072771908,"sku":"CC72582-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334553641284,"sku":"CC72582S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334553674052,"sku":"CC72582S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334553706820,"sku":"CC72582S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72582-1.jpg?v=1790123405"},{"product_id":"cc72613-krossover-opera-revisited-limited-edition","title":"Krossover, opera revisited - LIMITED EDITION","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow to reach the heart and soul of my own generation with classical music? That was the question I was struggling with before the idea of Krossover – Opera Revisited struck me as a bolt of lightning. Once upon a time the music that we now label as ‘classical’ was the popular music of the day. Mozart didn’t refrain from sneaking in a widely known folk tune in his compositions and at least a handful of Handel’s masterpieces had been written with the idea in mind of attracting large audiences. \u003cbr\u003eIt was only in the second half of the 20th century that the so called contemporary music became so abstract that the connection with the general public got lost along the way. In my mind this contemporary form of classical music aims at tickling the intellect, and most certainly not the heart and soul of the listener. During my career as a singer I’ve experienced that audiences, more often than not, still love a beautiful melody. Time and time again I was asked to sing the Habanera from George Bizet’s popular opera Carmen. That tune has more or less become my signature song. With that melody I really touched people, but for me it isn’t really a challenge to keep on doing this for the rest of my life. What to do? Record an album with famous opera arias? Why bother: the world’s best and most renowned singers have already released hundreds of these ‘opera hits’ albums. I considered it useless to add my contribution the list. And why go searching for obscure or forgotten opera gems when a singer like Cecilia Bartoli, to much acclaim, has already done so. No, I really had to come up with a better idea. An idea that would bring classical music back to where it belongs: in the warm hands of the people who love good music. Wouldn’t it be great to create a cultural environment in which going to the opera would be an understandable alternative to a new James Bond movie?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630861124,"sku":"CC72613-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738630893892,"sku":"CC72613-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738630926660,"sku":"CC72613-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630959428,"sku":"CC72613-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738630992196,"sku":"CC72613-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308072804676,"sku":"CC72613-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334553739588,"sku":"CC72613S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334553772356,"sku":"CC72613S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334553805124,"sku":"CC72613S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72613.jpg?v=1790440581"},{"product_id":"cc72551-symphony-no-3","title":"Symphony no. 3","description":"Bruckner - Symphony no. 3 Anton Bruckner meticulously noted it in his calendar: autumn 1872, first rejection of the performance of the Third Symphony in Vienna; autumn 1875, second rejection; September 27, 1877, third rejection. Thanks to the efforts of his good friend Johann (von Ritter) Herbeck (who had conducted the premiere of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony), Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde decided to programme the work on December 16, 1877, the second concert in the Gesellschaft series. Herbeck was to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic for the occasion in the “Golden Hall” of Vienna’s Musikverein. On October 28, however, Herbeck unexpectedly died, putting the premiere in doubt. That same evening, Bruckner sought the support of the influential Reichstag delegate and later Bruckner biographer August Göllerich, a close friend of Nikolaus Dumba, the Gesellschaft’s president. His efforts paid off, and the performance of the Third Symphony was saved. Alas, no conductor could be found who wanted to perform the work, so Bruckner, who was not used to leading an orchestra, took on the – to his mind, thankless – task. The results were predictable. Already in the rehearsals, things started going wrong. The orchestra’s musicians showed scant respect for the poor composer. They sabotaged the proceedings by intentionally playing out of tune and weaving odd notes and ornaments into the music. They stubbornly refused to repeat certain phrases and repeatedly laughed at Bruckner to his face. The great composer was the helpless conductor who baptized one of the most impressive compositions in music history in an exceedingly unpleasant atmosphere created largely by notorious troublemakers. Aside from the unfortunate rehearsals, other aspects of the concert were unfavourable for Bruckner: before the intermission, Joseph Hellmesberger conducted a programme that, to put it mildly, was excessively long: Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and the Violin Concerto in D minor by Louis Spohr followed multiple arias from Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Peter von Winter’s Das unterbrochene Opernfest (already largely forgotten). Were that not enough, there was Beethoven’s Meeresstille und glu?ckliche Fahrt before Bruckner could present the Third Symphony.","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738631385412,"sku":"CC72551-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738631418180,"sku":"CC72551-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738631450948,"sku":"CC72551-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738631483716,"sku":"CC72551-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738631516484,"sku":"CC72551-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308075491652,"sku":"CC72551-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334556000580,"sku":"CC72551S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334556033348,"sku":"CC72551S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334556066116,"sku":"CC72551S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72551-1.jpg?v=1790123534"},{"product_id":"cc72639-la-captive","title":"La captive","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHave you ever heard of Jean-Baptiste Guirod, Giullaume Ross-Despréaux or Eugène Prévost? Apart from Prévost, perhaps, they have mostly been consigned to the depths of oblivion. But these were composers who won the coveted Prix de Rome, an award that had been instituted by Napoleon himself in 1803, in the period from 1827 to 1829. And in doing so, they whipped the prize right out from under the nose of Berlioz, who had competed for it just as often as they had. It might offer Berlioz some – posthumous – solace to know that he was in excellent company; Ravel, Debussy and Bizet were also to be denied the prize. The judging system for the prize, which offered little scope for groundbreaking composers, has come in for severe criticism over the years. In the words of Edgar Varèse, the prize ‘produced so much insipid fruit that nowadays we can barely even remember their names’. It was Berlioz himself, in his highly readable and entertaining autobiography, who explained all about the prize’s requirements and what the prize itself involved. The winner received an allowance for five years, but this was on condition that he would spend the first two years at the Académie de France in Rome, use the third year for travelling through Germany and survive the remaining two years ‘doing what he could to promote himself and avoid dying from hunger’ in Paris. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBefore winning the prize in 1830 with the fairly scholastic cantata La mort de Sardanapale, Berlioz had already submitted attempts in the form of La mort d’Orphée (1827), Herminie (1828) and La mort de Cléopâtre (1829). In 1827, his Mort d’Orphée had been condemned as unplayable by the pianist who had to perform the piano reduction – one of the jury’s requirements. Berlioz seems to have been slightly more successful in the following year: the piano version of Herminie was admittedly playable, but the work was outstripped by the submission made by Ross-Despréaux and only came second. The cantata Herminie would survive, however, not least because Berlioz derived the idée fixe from his Symphonie Fantastique from the work. The cantata, to a text by Pierre-Ange Vieillard, was inspired by Tasso’s ‘Gerusalemme liberata’. This was an epic set during the Crusades, recounting the tale of the Christian knight Tancredi and his love for the Muslim warrior Clorinda. In the passage set by Berlioz, the central figure is Princess Erminia of Antioch, who was also in love with Tancredi. She leaves Jerusalem – dressed in Clorinda’s armour – to aid Tancredi, who has been wounded following a duel with the Muslim knight Argantes\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738631844164,"sku":"CC72639-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738631876932,"sku":"CC72639-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738631909700,"sku":"CC72639-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738631942468,"sku":"CC72639-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738631975236,"sku":"CC72639-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":57308076147012,"sku":"CC72639-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334557344068,"sku":"CC72639S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334557376836,"sku":"CC72639S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334557409604,"sku":"CC72639S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72639.jpg?v=1790123580"},{"product_id":"cc72641-complete-symphonies-vol-2-symphony-nos1-3","title":"Complete Symphonies vol. 2 - Symphony nos.1 \u0026 3","description":"\u003cp\u003e“What is particularly amazing about the Mendelssohn symphonies is the fact that he is both harking back to old masters like Bach, and, as a child of his time, looking ahead. Especially his Italian and Scottish symphonies are pointing at the future, since, in my opinion, Mendelssohn lived in the era of discovery, of the Wanderer. Goethe came up with his young Werther, a guy who went away to discover the world and upon returning nothing looked the same. It’s a bit like the Wanderer in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich: the sea, the valley, the hills, the light – everything looked new, fresh and different.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMendelssohn was such a Wanderer. He had read Goethe, so he travelled a lot. He went to Scotland, Italy and England where he absorbed the newness of it all. And that is exactly what you can hear in his music: astonishment, translated into music using harmonies we knew but which in his hands sounded completely fresh and new. Having said that, you can also hear an old-school musical approach.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMendelssohn sometimes uses fugues or chorales we know from older styles. He was the first to bring back those trustworthy techniques – and that, in itself, was also new. He took those techniques on a journey and that i that his music isn’t being played more often. There are Beethoven, Brahms or Schumann programs all over the place, but where is Mendelssohn? Let me repeat: where is Mendelssohn?\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738632696132,"sku":"CC72641-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738632728900,"sku":"CC72641-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738632761668,"sku":"CC72641-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738632794436,"sku":"CC72641-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738632827204,"sku":"CC72641-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308080931140,"sku":"CC72641-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334558458180,"sku":"CC72641S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334558490948,"sku":"CC72641S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334558523716,"sku":"CC72641S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72641.jpg?v=1790123664"},{"product_id":"cc72140-concerti-grossi-opus-3","title":"Concerti Grossi Opus 3","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv title=\"Page 7\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the first decades of the eighteenth century, London was one of the most important European music centres.\u003cbr\u003eThere was a rich courtly life as well as a great deal of music-making among the bourgeoisie. Just like Amsterdam, London was a hub of music pub- lishers and instrument builders. London’s musical life had a strong Italian orientation. It was mainly the Italian composers who were suc- cessful there, especially Arcangelo Corelli. Although his oeuvre is lim- ited to instrumental music and only has six opus numbers, his influence was considerable. For example, the London-based Italian Francesco Geminiani made orchestral arrange- ments of Corelli’s violin sonatas opus 5. Geminiani’s Concerti grossi opus\u003cbr\u003e1 and Corelli’s own Concerti grossi opus 6 were published in many differ- ent arrangements.\u003cbr\u003eBorn in Halle, Germany, composer George Frideric Handel started in his hometown as an organist, and settled more or less permanently in London in 1717. By then he already had a career in Italy, where he was very suc- cessful as a young composer and kept company with the likes of Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. 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In Italy he learned a great deal about opera from Alessandro Scarlatti, and audiences in that country were wildly enthusiastic about his operas. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738650325316,"sku":"CC72140-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650358084,"sku":"CC72140-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650390852,"sku":"CC72140-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738650423620,"sku":"CC72140-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650456388,"sku":"CC72140-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308167209284,"sku":"CC72140-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334595158340,"sku":"CC72140S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334595191108,"sku":"CC72140S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334595223876,"sku":"CC72140S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72140.jpg?v=1790125390"},{"product_id":"cc72181-two-generations-kuijken","title":"Two Generations Kuijken","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv title=\"Page 4\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis recording, by two generations of musicians from the Kuijken family (Veronica, Sigiswald, Sara and Wieland Kuijken), with my wife Marleen Thiers, 2nd viola in the quintet, was made with so-called ‘modern’ instruments. Although our name is generally linked with ‘period performance practice’, listeners should not expect or seek a deliberate, specific ‘historic’ tendency\u003cbr\u003e in this recording: this was not what defined our collaboration for this production...\u003cbr\u003e I would even venture to say that in the first place we allowed ourselves to be moved and motivated by the immense strength exuded by these Beethoven pieces, based on our own musical experience and intuition; what we shared was astonishment – and joy. As we went along we became increasingly aware that it can be a gift to have kindred genes; and that an instrument is simply an instrument, no more... \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738650620228,"sku":"CC72181-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650652996,"sku":"CC72181-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650685764,"sku":"CC72181-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738650718532,"sku":"CC72181-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650751300,"sku":"CC72181-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308167831876,"sku":"CC72181-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334598533444,"sku":"CC72181S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334598566212,"sku":"CC72181S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334598598980,"sku":"CC72181S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72181.jpg?v=1790125432"},{"product_id":"cc72198-egmont-wellingtons-sieg","title":"Egmont, Wellingtons Sieg","description":"\u003cp\u003eBooklet is only in available in Dutch\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738650915140,"sku":"CC72198-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650947908,"sku":"CC72198-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738650980676,"sku":"CC72198-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738651013444,"sku":"CC72198-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651046212,"sku":"CC72198-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308168388932,"sku":"CC72198-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334598730052,"sku":"CC72198S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334598762820,"sku":"CC72198S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334598795588,"sku":"CC72198S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72198.jpg?v=1790125473"},{"product_id":"cc72302-schwanengesang-and-songs-after-seidl","title":"Schwanengesang and songs after Seidl","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn January 1829, a good two months after Schubert’s death, the Viennese music publisher Tobias Haslinger, with whom Schubert had worked very closely in the final years of his life, placed an advertisement in the Viennese press, in which he announced Franz Schubert’s Schwanen-Gesang, 14 Lieder, “the final fruits of his noble power [...], written in August 1828, shortly before his decease.” Haslinger had obtained the rights to the songs in December 1828 from Schubert’s brother Ferdinand, who had been handling the composer’s estate, and had given them the collective title of Schwanengesang. In reality there were two groups of songs: seven songs on texts by Ludwig Rellstab and six on texts by Heinrich Heine. These two groups are contained in a common manuscript of August 1828 and are today collected together as Schwanengesang (D 957), along with a single Lied, Die Taubenpost, on a poem by his friend Gabriel Seidl (D 965 A). The Lieder do not form a single cycle, for each group appears complete in itself. In the Heine group are collected together all the songs Schubert composed on poems by Heine; the same almost applies for the Rellstab group of Lieder: apart from the Lieder in Schwanengesang the only Rellstab poems on which Schubert wrote songs were the large-scale song for voice, horn and piano Auf dem Strom (D 943), the strophic Lied Herbst (D 945), which survives as an album leaf for Heinrich Panofka, and the incomplete Lied Lebensmut. Some anecdotes have sprouted up around the rellstab-lieder. During a trip to Vienna in 1825 Ludwig Rellstab had allowed some of his poems to be copied, as is recorded in Beethoven’s companion book, and he had begged him “to select them for musical setting.” This did not happen, however Rellstab records in his memoirs that “the sheets were later restored to him from Beethoven’s estate.” Some of these “were annotated with little crosses drawn in pencil in Beethoven’s own hand” – and, according to Rellstab, it was these ones that had aroused Schubert’s interest. If it is correct that Schubert in fact set the very poems that Beethoven had at first selected for himself, this would be one more sign that Schubert saw himself as a successor to Beethoven, even as a completer of his work in Lieder composition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738651308356,"sku":"CC72302-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651341124,"sku":"CC72302-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651373892,"sku":"CC72302-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738651406660,"sku":"CC72302-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651439428,"sku":"CC72302-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308168552772,"sku":"CC72302-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599024964,"sku":"CC72302S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599057732,"sku":"CC72302S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599090500,"sku":"CC72302S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72302-1.jpg?v=1790125517"},{"product_id":"cc72346-folk-stories-songs-by-beethoven-britten-mahler-respighi-sibelius-ao","title":"Folk Stories - Songs by Beethoven, Britten, Mahler, Respighi, Sibelius a.o.","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv title=\"Page 4\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot long ago, I organized a party that some fellow singers came to after a performance in Salzburg. If you are lucky enough that it isn’t raining, the weather can be beautiful in Salzburg, and this was one of those sultry summer evenings. The barbecue worked well, the beer and wine flowed. A few Russian and Ukrainian singers had come and brought their own bottle of vodka. It wasn’t long before they finished it and went on to beer.\u003cbr\u003eIt was a long night. At about two, when just a small group was left, the singing finally began. (It takes a while before a singer will spontaneously break out in song. If you ask a professional singer to “Sing something for us”, you’re not likely to get your wish. It must be some sort of professional deformity.) First came the national anthems. Then the Ukrainian singer began to sing – with full voice and total devotion - other folk songs from his country, and soon his wife joined in. Everyone sat in silence, listening.\u003cbr\u003eThe melancholy of the music took hold of the listeners and even the singer himself. Maybe it had to do with the feeling of nostalgia that singing folk songs evokes, the feeling that you belong somewhere? Or maybe it\u003cbr\u003ewas the straightfoward and simple presentation of the songs. In any case, they fitted in perfectly – in the wee hours of the morning and with empty bottles surrounding us. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738651636036,"sku":"CC72346-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651668804,"sku":"CC72346-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651701572,"sku":"CC72346-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738651734340,"sku":"CC72346-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738651767108,"sku":"CC72346-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308169601348,"sku":"CC72346-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599254340,"sku":"CC72346S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599287108,"sku":"CC72346S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599319876,"sku":"CC72346S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72346-1.jpg?v=1790125563"},{"product_id":"cc72351-works-for-violin-solo","title":"Works for violin solo","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv title=\"Page 4\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo centuries separate the lives of Johann Sebastian Bach and Eugène Ysaÿe, two centuries of differences and similarities. In the first half of the 18th century, J.S. Bach developed into a compositional genius with an enormous repertoire. In the beginning of the 20th century, Ysaÿe emerged as a world- famous violinist. He also composed, but less than his illustrious predecessor.As children, both received violin les- sons from their fathers, Bach in his birthplace Eisenach and Ysaÿe in his native Liege. Bach was equally drawn to the violin, the harpsichord and the organ. Ysaÿe was obsessed with the one instrument. Bach earned his living writing whatever music his employers required of him. From the time of his appointment as cantor at the Lutheran Thomaskirche in Leipzig in 1723, he wrote principally church music. Before that, he had been kapellmeisterat the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. As it was not custom- ary for sacred music to be heard at this Protestant court, Bach was expected to write secular music.\u003cbr\u003eFrom 1717 to 1723, he composed violin concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier, pieces for solo organ, harpsichord and cello, and sonatas and partitas for the violin. Most of his younger contemporaries, including his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, considered his music old-fashioned. In doing so, they appar- ently neglected The Well-Tempered Clavier, in which Bach experimented with keys, new sonorities and daring modulations from one key to another.\u003cbr\u003eThe new tuning system for keyboard instruments, called “equal temperament,” in which all semitones are equidistant, opened previously unheard of possibilities for Bach. The innovations it gave rise to, found their way even into his works for solo string instrument. Many of the arpeggios and various double stops in those pieces employed such sonorities, from which Bach could deviate into an array of keys. 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Being Godly music with pious texts, the most appropriate place would be a temple. I was looking for a church impregnated with the spirit of Saragossan baroque art; something that would be an added inspiration to that of our work. Naturally, the site had to comply with the necessary acoustic quality, in accordance with the repertoire that we would record, able to do justice to these pieces so filled with minute details and subtle nuances. The Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary in Ambel, at the foot of the Moncayo mountain, attracted me with its typical Aragonese blend and contrast of a sober exterior and rich interior. With its dim and fickle lights, with the purity of its materials and with the equilibrium -so difficult to achieve- between space and decor. There are few places like this, where these revived pieces, several of which (the cantatas) surprisingly enough, remained unpublished until I had the great fortune of discovering them overseas. \u003cbr\u003eFifteen years ago, my research on Spanish baroque music led me on to the trail of some American archives where -I suspected- I would be able to find some interesting collections of music from the Iberian Peninsula. I crossed the Atlantic and the results far exceeded what I had imagined. Not only did I find numerous and indeed interesting sheet music, but as a result of my journey I discovered that the soul of those antique scores remained unexpectedly alive. Mexican folklore, for example, is a vivid portrait -with the inevitable influences of later centuries- of the music that was made in the old New Spain up to the eighteenth century. The Central American people were dazzled -according to the missionaries’ chronicles- by the richness of Spanish music, which they immediately adopted as their own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738653208900,"sku":"CC72509-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653241668,"sku":"CC72509-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653274436,"sku":"CC72509-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738653307204,"sku":"CC72509-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653339972,"sku":"CC72509-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308170289476,"sku":"CC72509-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599844164,"sku":"CC72509S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599876932,"sku":"CC72509S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334599909700,"sku":"CC72509S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72509-1.jpg?v=1790125644"},{"product_id":"cc72512-improvisatie","title":"ImproviSatie","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv title=\"Page 4\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNothing is as present as music extempore.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e As desperately as the improviser waits for inspiration by the muse, on which he depends, he is still honestly surprised once it comes. Surprised by seduction to play music for which there is no correct fingering. Music\u003cbr\u003e for which he is not prepared – and for which he must not be prepared. Music, which also requires improvised meth- ods of performance, now!\u003cbr\u003eMusic spontaneously composed originates from the presence of the spirit. Just like words can be found for the things that are in our hearts – un- less the bored faces of the people to whom we speak make us realize that they know it better (and have for a long time) ...Coming up now! with something that is new for both of us, foreseeing the un- foreseeable: This is music extempore. To achieve this, I have embraced the music of Erik Satie. Through closely- tied and personalized improvisation, I gained insights and found open win- dows and doors. I looked into Satie’s music applying the rules it follows. Every day, I interpreted its horoscope, so to speak. What other development potential would have been “in it” for its idea?\u003cbr\u003eHe himself led the path. With his “Wrong Dances,” he wrote the same piece three times: In his understand- ing, apparently, there is no one phras- ing of a thought that remains valid through the times. Neither in my un- derstanding, by the way. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738653602116,"sku":"CC72512-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653634884,"sku":"CC72512-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653667652,"sku":"CC72512-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738653700420,"sku":"CC72512-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653733188,"sku":"CC72512-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308171731268,"sku":"CC72512-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601122116,"sku":"CC72512S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601154884,"sku":"CC72512S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601187652,"sku":"CC72512S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72512-1.jpg?v=1790125684"},{"product_id":"cc72518-wanderer","title":"Wanderer","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eNot even our contemporary inclination towards ‘authenticity’ and ‘loyalty to the composer’s intentions’ has been able to stop the trend of adapting scores for a different instrumentation than what the composer originally had in mind. The rapidly growing number of smallish ensembles with combinations of instruments for which very little music is available has even proved to be an added incentive in this direction, leading towards a new development within classical music. Not infrequently, a particular interest is shown in lieder which were originally written for solo voice with piano accompaniment. Sometimes the composers themselves put a small instrumental ensemble or even a complete symphony orchestra in the place of the original piano part, but it is not unusual for others to undertake this task.\u003cbr\u003eOne of the composers who adapted a piano score for a complete orchestra was Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), and the orchestration for his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer, written in 1883-1885) followed the piano version so quickly that the very first performance in 1886 immediately featured the orchestra. In 1920, Arnold Schoenberg created a new version for flute, clarinet, harmonium, piano, string quintet and percussion, and this instrumentation was taken by the ensemble KONTRASTE as the starting point for a project called Wanderer, in collaboration with the tenor Christoph Prégardien. It revolves around Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen as well as sixteen lieder by Robert Schumann, which were arranged for this project by Marcus Reißenberger. The idea was to retain the liveliness heard in the piano accompaniment while at the same time creating an instrumental colour palette that far surpassed it. A sort of intermezzo is formed by four lieder by contemporary composer Wilhelm Killmayer, who wrote his own instrumentation to fit in with the idiom used in the lieder of Mahler and Schumann.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738653929796,"sku":"CC72518-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653962564,"sku":"CC72518-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738653995332,"sku":"CC72518-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738654028100,"sku":"CC72518-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738654060868,"sku":"CC72518-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308174057796,"sku":"CC72518-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601318724,"sku":"CC72518S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601351492,"sku":"CC72518S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601384260,"sku":"CC72518S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72518-1.jpg?v=1790125726"},{"product_id":"cc72519-1-parsifal-1","title":"Parsifal-1","description":"\u003cp\u003ePhilosopher Ernst Bloch once referred to the ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel’ or consecrational stage festival Parsifal as ‘a metaphysical adagio’. In these few words he summed up the story line and the musical purport of Wagner’s last opera – that is, if such a thing is at all possible in his operas, because as a composer Wagner was never at a loss for words when it came to bandying about statements artistic and non-artistic about the world in general and the universe in particular. Wagner’s musical theatre revolves around fundamental questions of human existence. Tristan und Isolde is about an all-consuming love, but also about the implications of the longing for love and the death wish. The work is about defining an identity through love and the loss of that identity through that same love. Der Ring des Nibelungen is about the incompatibility of love and the pursuit of power; it is also an in-depth exploration of the question of whether man has a free will, and it is about the eternal cycle of destruction and renewal which holds mankind captive on this earth. Parsifal is about all of the above and much, much more. Wagner himself defined the theme of his swan song as ‘Das gro.e Leid des Lebens’, the great suffering of life.\u003cbr\u003eEverything he still wanted to say at the end of his life about life, love, sex, psychology, politics, society, nature, art, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and anti-Semitism was mixed together in a grail chalice (poisonous, according to some) to form a ‘metaphysical adagio’ of four hours of consecrational musical drama. Consecrational in the literal meaning of the word. Wagner’s own name for the genre, ‘Bu?hnenweihfestspiel’ means a consecrational stage festival. The plot of Parsifal refers implicitly and explicitly to Christianity and religious rites. Indeed, it was one of Wagner’s many ambitions to replace European Christianity by his own ritual art.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738654323012,"sku":"CC72519-1-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738654355780,"sku":"CC72519-1-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738654388548,"sku":"CC72519-1-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738654421316,"sku":"CC72519-1-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738654454084,"sku":"CC72519-1-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":57308175565124,"sku":"CC72519-1-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601613636,"sku":"CC72519-1S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601646404,"sku":"CC72519-1S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334601679172,"sku":"CC72519-1S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72519-1-1.jpg?v=1790125768"},{"product_id":"cc72519-2-parsifal-2","title":"Parsifal-2","description":"\u003cp\u003ePhilosopher Ernst Bloch once referred to the ‘Bühnenweihfestspiel’ or consecrational stage festival Parsifal as ‘a metaphysical adagio’. In these few words he summed up the story line and the musical purport of Wagner’s last opera – that is, if such a thing is at all possible in his operas, because as a composer Wagner was never at a loss for words when it came to bandying about statements artistic and non-artistic about the world in general and the universe in particular. Wagner’s musical theatre revolves around fundamental questions of human existence. Tristan und Isolde is about an all-consuming love, but also about the implications of the longing for love and the death wish. The work is about defining an identity through love and the loss of that identity through that same love. Der Ring des Nibelungen is about the incompatibility of love and the pursuit of power; it is also an in-depth exploration of the question of whether man has a free will, and it is about the eternal cycle of destruction and renewal which holds mankind captive on this earth. Parsifal is about all of the above and much, much more. Wagner himself defined the theme of his swan song as ‘Das gro.e Leid des Lebens’, the great suffering of life.\u003cbr\u003eEverything he still wanted to say at the end of his life about life, love, sex, psychology, politics, society, nature, art, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism and anti-Semitism was mixed together in a grail chalice (poisonous, according to some) to form a ‘metaphysical adagio’ of four hours of consecrational musical drama. Consecrational in the literal meaning of the word. Wagner’s own name for the genre, ‘Bu?hnenweihfestspiel’ means a consecrational stage festival. The plot of Parsifal refers implicitly and explicitly to Christianity and religious rites. 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Sie sind sehr gu?tig, aber es ist doch noch lange keine Schöpfung!”). Haydn was surprised and almost insulted by this remark, and he retorted: “That is true; it is not a Creation and I can scarcely believe that it will ever become one.” (“Das ist wahr, es ist noch keine Schöpfung, glaube auch schwerlich, daß es dieselbe je erreichen wird”)\u003cbr\u003eAccording to William Kinderman2, this anecdote – about Beethoven’s ballet The Creation of Prometheus – is very plausible and also quite typical. It shows Beethoven’s predilection for plays on words. Haydn’s great oratorio The Creation (Die Schöpfung) had recently had its first performance, and it is telling that the two composers agreed that the ballet was “far from a Creation”. According to Kinderman, the Prometheus ballet is a creation myth in its own right, but it is actually the music of the Eroica that personifies the Promethean stature and that can be seen as the “creation”.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655076676,"sku":"CC72532-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655109444,"sku":"CC72532-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655142212,"sku":"CC72532-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655174980,"sku":"CC72532-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655207748,"sku":"CC72532-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":57308178121028,"sku":"CC72532-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602268996,"sku":"CC72532S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602301764,"sku":"CC72532S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602334532,"sku":"CC72532S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72532-1.jpg?v=1790125858"},{"product_id":"cc72627-violin-concertos","title":"Violin Concertos","description":"\u003cp\u003eApart from brief, introductory stops at The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (both of which are orchestral Variations set on another English composer’s musical kernel), Benjamin Britten is best known for his operas and vocal music. But amid his output are also eight concertos, only one of them famous, two known, two obscure or unfinished, and two hiding in plain sight.\u003cbr\u003eThe 1932 Double Concerto for Violin, Viola, and Orchestra was an advanced student work, written half a year after Britten had received the Royal College of Music’s Ernest Farrar Prize for Composition and the penultimate work before he began attaching the seal of official approval—opus numbers—to his works. Britten wrote with displeasure about its “fatuous slow movement”, but Christopher Mark suggests in the Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Britten that it approaches the Sinfonietta op.1 in quality. Britten never wrote it out inorchestral score.\u003cbr\u003eIn 1938, after Britten moved into the Old Mill at Snape, he wrote his Piano Concerto “No.1”—an optimistic if ultimately misleading designation, since Britten was not to write another piano concerto in the strict sense. It was a fine success and immediately premiered at the Proms by Sir Henry Wood and the BBC Symphony Orchestra—although then still with the original slow movement which Britten later replaced with a Passacaglia typical, by then, for his style.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655469892,"sku":"CC72627-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655502660,"sku":"CC72627-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655535428,"sku":"CC72627-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655568196,"sku":"CC72627-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655600964,"sku":"CC72627-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308178612548,"sku":"CC72627-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602694980,"sku":"CC72627S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602727748,"sku":"CC72627S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602760516,"sku":"CC72627S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72627-1.jpg?v=1790125901"},{"product_id":"cc72528-18th-century-flemish-harpsichord-music","title":"18th-Century Flemish Harpsichord Music","description":"\u003cp\u003eEighteenth-century Flemish harpsichord music today is mostly identified with the Pièces de clavecin of 1731 by Joseph-Hector Fiocco (1703-1741). Although this collection, consisting of two major harpsichord suites, undoubtedly forms the high point in the genre, I want this CD to show that Fiocco was certainly not the only good Flemish harpsichord composer. (For those interested in Fiocco’s harpsichord works, I refer to my complete recording of his Pièces de clavecin (ACCENT 24176, 2007)). The repertoire of this CD is the result of an artistic research project I carried out into eighteenth-century Flemish harpsichord music, based on the rich collection of the Antwerp Conservatory library.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655863108,"sku":"CC72528-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655895876,"sku":"CC72528-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655928644,"sku":"CC72528-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738655961412,"sku":"CC72528-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738655994180,"sku":"CC72528-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308180349252,"sku":"CC72528-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602924356,"sku":"CC72528S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602957124,"sku":"CC72528S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334602989892,"sku":"CC72528S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72528-1.jpg?v=1790125943"},{"product_id":"cc72530-violin-concerto-an-american-in-paris","title":"Violin concerto - An American in Paris","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen Antonín Dvorák first submitted a number of compositions in 1874 to qualify for a state stipendium, Eduard Hanslick, an influential music critic, but also a member of the assessment committee, was pleasantly surprised. Dvorak was awarded the grant and could spend all his time on composing. In the next years he again applied for the grant, and it was again awarded. When he appliedin 1877, he even received a personal letter from Hanslick, advising the young composer to get in touch with Johannes Brahms, who had been a member of the committee for several years. Brahms held Dvor?ák’s work in high regard and wanted to meet him.\u003cbr\u003eThey indeed met shortly afterwards and soon became good friends. Brahms brought Dvorák in contact with other composers, publishers and famous musicians. One of them was the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim, a good friend of Brahms for many years. Dvorák was invited to the Joachim home in Berlin, where he was cordially received. The violinist even organised a home concert for the first performance of Dvorák’s String Sextet and the Tenth String Quartet. The two men talked at great length, and Dvorák spoke of the violin concerto which he had recently started to compose. Joachim, who had not long before played the premiere of Brahms’s Violin Concerto, responded with enthusiasm. Dvorák spent the next few months labouring over the concerto and sent it to Joachim in the autumn of 1879.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738656289092,"sku":"CC72530-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738656321860,"sku":"CC72530-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738656354628,"sku":"CC72530-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738656387396,"sku":"CC72530-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738656420164,"sku":"CC72530-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308181201220,"sku":"CC72530-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334603448644,"sku":"CC72530S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334603481412,"sku":"CC72530S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334603514180,"sku":"CC72530S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72530-1.jpg?v=1790125984"},{"product_id":"cc72533-beethoven-symphony-no-9","title":"Beethoven Symphony No. 9","description":"Challenge Classics presents \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBeethoven Symphony No. 9 \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eperformed by the \u003cstrong\u003eNetherlands Symphony Orchestra\u003c\/strong\u003e conducted by \u003cstrong\u003eJan Willem de Vriend\u003c\/strong\u003e. The album is available in Stereo and 5 Channel Surround Sound DSD from Native DSD Music.\r\n\r\n\u003cem\u003e“I am Isis. I am that is, and that was, and that shall be, and no mortal hath raised the veil from before my face.”\u003c\/em\u003e - famous inscription on the colonnade of the Temple of Isis in ancient Egypt. (Ich bin, was da ist \/ Ich bin alles was ist, was war, und was seyn wird, kein sterblicher Mensch hat meinen Schleyer aufgehoben)\r\n\r\nBeethoven once wrote this down and the sentence had lain on his desk ever since, together with another one: “He is One, self-existent, and to that One, all things owe their existence.” (“Er ist einzig von ihm selbst, diesem Einzigen sind alle Dinge ihr Daseyn schuldig”)\r\n\r\nThese were important words to Beethoven. Perhaps they inspired him to aim for the highest attainable in his work. And even if he could never gain a place as high as that One, or as the goddess of motherhood (Isis), he felt it was his moral duty to give the world what it was that he could give: his musical legacy.\r\n\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eNetherlands Symphony Orchestra\u003c\/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cstrong\u003eJan Willem de Vriend, Conductor\u003c\/strong\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738656616772,"sku":"CC72533-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738656649540,"sku":"CC72533-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738656682308,"sku":"CC72533-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738656715076,"sku":"CC72533-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738656747844,"sku":"CC72533-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308181496132,"sku":"CC72533-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334603809092,"sku":"CC72533S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334603841860,"sku":"CC72533S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334603874628,"sku":"CC72533S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72533-1.jpg?v=1790126029"},{"product_id":"cc72637-simplicius-simplicissimus","title":"Simplicius Simplicissimus","description":"\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHartmann completed the original version of Simplicius between 1934 and 1936, and revised the work in 1957. It was his friend, the conductor and contemporary music advocate, Hermann Scherchen (b. 1891, d. 1966), who had prevailed upon the young Hartmann to write the opera. Scherchen felt the theme lent itself perfectly to a political parody of Nazism. He put the composer on von Grimmelshausen’s path, and gave the initial impetus to the libretto, which Wolfgang Petzet and Hartmann himself completed. If von Grimmelshausen and Hartmann have anything in common, it is certainly their astute, unsparing analysis of the reality around them, which so singularly informs their legacy – all the more so because Hartmann did not want to write an opera historicizing the Thirty Years War which had raged in Germany from 1618 to 1648. On the contrary, his aim was to hold up a ruthless mirror to the world of the emerging Third Reich. The setting in which the initially utterly naive shepherd boy Simplicius is placed in this music drama is thus decidedly allusive. Little imagination is needed, for instance, to see the wolf, which appears in the first scene and re-emerges subsequently more than once, as symbolizing Hitler. In the finale to the first scene, in which mercenaries destroy the peasantry, the work as a whole retroactively takes on a powerfully prophetic overtone, with the notorious Kristallnacht having taken place on the night of 9–10 November 1938, only two years after Hartmann had completed his first version of Simplicius. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738657009988,"sku":"CC72637-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738657042756,"sku":"CC72637-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738657075524,"sku":"CC72637-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738657108292,"sku":"CC72637-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738657141060,"sku":"CC72637-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308182085956,"sku":"CC72637-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334604235076,"sku":"CC72637S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334604267844,"sku":"CC72637S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334604300612,"sku":"CC72637S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72637.jpg?v=1790126074"},{"product_id":"cc72622-ladies-first-opera-arias-by-joseph-haydn","title":"Ladies First! 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From 1766 onwards, Haydn wrote, in addition to composing chamber music and symphonies, four Italian comedies, six German Singspiele and numerous Italian operas for his employers of the Esterhazy dynasty. Furthermore he also supervised all musical activities at the court including yearly performances of more than 150 operas, many composed by his contemporaries. As Kapellmeister Haydn was not only responsible for musical direction of the operas but also for staging, contracting the singers and occasionally writing an extra aria as required, like the aria “Quando la rosa”. This aria was included in the performance of Guiseppe Anfossi’s opera La Metilde Ritrovata (1773).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738657927492,"sku":"CC72622-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738657960260,"sku":"CC72622-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738657993028,"sku":"CC72622-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738658025796,"sku":"CC72622-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738658058564,"sku":"CC72622-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308185362756,"sku":"CC72622-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334605414724,"sku":"CC72622S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334605447492,"sku":"CC72622S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334605480260,"sku":"CC72622S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72622_2f7759d4-9267-410f-80c3-d18a4bce574d.jpg?v=1790126204"},{"product_id":"cc72610-tango","title":"Tango!","description":"\u003cp\u003eÁstor Piazzolla was seen as „a nutter with strange ideas and pointless modernisms“ at the beginning of his career in his home country Argentina, hated by traditionalists and purists, who saw the universe of tango on a slippery slope by the manner in which he combined elements and ways of performing techniques used by jazz and modernists, fusing musical directions that appeared from the outside to be opposite, and by doing so creating a new style of Tango, not really meant to dance along with, but designed for a carefully listening audience. Piazzolla’s Tango Nuevo however never looses the romantic side, nor the passion, drama, eroticism and intensity of the traditional tango.\u003cbr\u003eThree years after his birth in 1921 in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, Ástor Piazzolla moved with his Italian parents to New York. His father opened a barber shop in Greenwich Village and fought against his homesickness by listening to tango recordings, day and night. Ástor’s musical talent was recognized and he received piano lessons and in the same time bandonéon lessons, more for his father than himself: Ástor’s passion at the time was really jazz – and Johann Sebastian Bach, not tango. „My father listens to tango all the time and is thinking back to Buenos Aires, his family, his friends – his melancholy, his upset is Tango, always Tango“.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738660581700,"sku":"CC72610-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738660614468,"sku":"CC72610-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738660647236,"sku":"CC72610-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738660680004,"sku":"CC72610-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738660712772,"sku":"CC72610-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308199551300,"sku":"CC72610-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334607053124,"sku":"CC72610S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334607085892,"sku":"CC72610S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334607118660,"sku":"CC72610S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72610.jpg?v=1790126559"},{"product_id":"cc72612-crossroads","title":"Crossroads","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSo-called entertainment or light music tends to carry a negative connotation these days. For many, it would seem that achieving overnight success and making loads of money are on a par with easy music, preferably performed by musicians in very smart attire. But that certainly hasn’t always been the case. Indeed, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and, of course, the Strauss family – to name but a few great composers – whose music belongs to the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra’s repertoire, could provide audiences of their day with plenty of exciting, entertaining fare with their contradances, ländlers, waltzes and quodlibets to which people danced, laughed and drank. Mastering this aspect of composition was an aart for such masters. \u003cbr\u003eThe main difference with much of today’s popular music is perhaps that, in the past, superficiality was not necessarily a prerequisite. The same holds true for NedSym Lite. After our concert performances featuring works by Beethoven, Schumann and Wagner, for instance, why not enjoy NedSym Lite? Performed with such skill, mastery and success! We simply couldn’t resist sharing all this with you on a CD...\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738660942148,"sku":"CC72612-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738660974916,"sku":"CC72612-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738661007684,"sku":"CC72612-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738661040452,"sku":"CC72612-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738661073220,"sku":"CC72612-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308204958020,"sku":"CC72612-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334607184196,"sku":"CC72612S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334607216964,"sku":"CC72612S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334607249732,"sku":"CC72612S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72612-1.jpg?v=1790126600"},{"product_id":"cc72311-vespro-della-beata-vergine","title":"Vespro della Beata Vergine","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eMonteverdi’s “Vespro della Beata Vergine” was published in 1610, together with his “Missa in illo tempore”. This edition is his first important collection of music for the Catholic service. It is assumed that the composer hoped that this would help him to earn a position under the protective wings of the Church; and it payed off for him in 1613, the year in which he was named maestro di cappella of the San Marco Basilica in Venice. There is much uncertainty about how this “Vespro” came into being. In fact, this is a collection of various pieces which were most likely not conceived together with the goal of creating a self-contained unity; there are for example two Magnificat compositions in a row; of course only one of these should be chosen by the performer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738663563588,"sku":"CC72311-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738663596356,"sku":"CC72311-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738663629124,"sku":"CC72311-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738663661892,"sku":"CC72311-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738663694660,"sku":"CC72311-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308216459588,"sku":"CC72311-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334609183044,"sku":"CC72311S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334609215812,"sku":"CC72311S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334609248580,"sku":"CC72311S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72311.jpg?v=1790126823"},{"product_id":"cc72316-h-moll-messe","title":"h-Moll-Messe","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe performance of the B minor Mass by La Petite Bande\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the 1980s, Joshua Rifkin published his Preliminary Report on the workings and makeup of the “choir” in the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His conclusions (then provisional and to be further elaborated on) radically contradicted the practice of the time, which consisted in unreservedly assuming that by “choir” – indeed – Bach meant a vocal ensemble that has multiple singers per part, resulting in a more or less substantial number of performers. Before Rifkin, nobody had studied the sources with such seriousness from that standpoint or sought to envision the actual conditions Bach faced in his position as cantor. Rifkin’s findings, thus, were “sacrilegious.” Generally, he concluded, Bach used one singer per part in his cantatas, motets, passions, etc., so there was no “choir” in the modern sense of the word – consequently, the B minor Mass requires just eight vocalists (the Osanna is set for 2 choirs: 2 x 4 singers).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738665201988,"sku":"CC72316-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738665234756,"sku":"CC72316-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738665267524,"sku":"CC72316-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738665300292,"sku":"CC72316-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738665333060,"sku":"CC72316-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308218065220,"sku":"CC72316-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334609543492,"sku":"CC72316S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334609576260,"sku":"CC72316S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334609609028,"sku":"CC72316S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72316.jpg?v=1790126864"},{"product_id":"cc72324-between-life-and-death-songs-and-arias","title":"Between life and death - songs and arias","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe protagonist of the new album by Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees has not yet arrived on the scene at the start and is awaited with the greatest yearning. “Come sweet death! Come blessed rest! Come, lead me in peace, for I am weary of the world, ah come!” Thus the opening of the aria from Bach’s Schemelli Liederbuch, which starts the programme “Between Life and Death”. Death not as the end but as the beginning of a better life – perhaps this message, filled with baroque certainty of salvation and unshakeable quietude, sounds as remote for us today as the afterlife itself. Christoph Prégardien frankly admits to admiring the people of Bach’s time somewhat for their trusting relationship to death: “Today death has been pushed out of our life almost completely, outlawed to the hospital ward and old people’s home. And this is the very reason we have compiled our programme: so that people become a little more aware that death is always in our midst. That we can’t ignore it, but have to accept it.” Death is in actual fact a close confidante, at least for Prégardien and Gees. It was so to speak their companion on their first Schubert album together “Abschied und Reise” (Songs of farewell and journey), also the Heine programme “Geliebte Schmerzen” (Beloved Pain). So it is scarcely any wonder that “Between Life and Death” also revolves around the Romantics: Schubert and Schumann, where in the end death is the sole remaining friend of the lonely human being, Brahms, where it quietly slips into the song idylls of late summer, and finally Mahler, where the no man’s land “between life and death” really does open up for all those souls who have become lost to the world.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738665857348,"sku":"CC72324-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738665890116,"sku":"CC72324-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738665922884,"sku":"CC72324-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738665955652,"sku":"CC72324-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738665988420,"sku":"CC72324-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308218622276,"sku":"CC72324-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610067780,"sku":"CC72324S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610100548,"sku":"CC72324S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610133316,"sku":"CC72324S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72324.jpg?v=1790126905"},{"product_id":"cc72345-divertimenti","title":"Divertimenti","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eOn May 1 in the year 1761, Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) entered into the service of the princes of Esterházy. It was an association that would last nearly 30 years and prove fruitful for Prince Nikolaus I and the composer. At first, Haydn was merely the deputy kapelmeister. He was expected, as specified in the contract, to behave, obligingly write whatever music was assigned to him, and comport himself as an example to the other musicians. Additionally, he was to report in livery to the prince each day at noon to receive his instructions for the day.\u003cbr\u003eSeveral years later, he was named kapelmeister. In this function, he wrote nearly all of the music heard in the court, from piano sonatas to symphonies, violin concertos to operas. Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the relationship between employer and employee began to change in the second half of the 18\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003eth \u003c\/span\u003ecentury. Previously, a court or church musician was considered a servant who should bow to his superiors and be at all times obedient. But now, a musician – at least, an outstanding one – was seen more as a valued employee who could bring credit to his patron and should thus be fostered. Haydn held an enviable position with the Esterházys in that regard. To a degree, he had a confidential relationship with Prince Nikolaus, owing in particular to the prince’s unusual hobby: Nikolaus was a passionate player of the baryton. This relative of the viola da gamba was even then uncommon. The baryton, roughly the size of a cello, has six or seven strings that the musician plays upon and an additional nine to twenty strings that provide resonance through sympathetic vibration, lending the instrument its unique muffled sound. Because it was so difficult to play, the instrument never became very popular, and it was largely obsolete by Haydn’s time. As the prince played the baryton, however, Haydn as a matter of course had to compose for it.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738666217796,"sku":"CC72345-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738666250564,"sku":"CC72345-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738666283332,"sku":"CC72345-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738666316100,"sku":"CC72345-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738666348868,"sku":"CC72345-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308219867460,"sku":"CC72345-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610329924,"sku":"CC72345S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610362692,"sku":"CC72345S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610395460,"sku":"CC72345S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72345.jpg?v=1790126946"},{"product_id":"cc72355-symphony-no-1-hamburg-1893-version","title":"Symphony no. 1 (Hamburg 1893 version)","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eGustav Mahler (1860-1911) was just twenty-four and engaged with the Royal and Imperial Theater of Kassel, Germany, as its music director, when he fell in love with one of its sopranos, the young and beautiful Johanna Richter. She so much steered up his feelings that he dedicated his 1884 song cycle \u003cem\u003eLieder eines fahrenden Gesellen \u003c\/em\u003eto her. Four years later, in 1888, another lady infatuated him, but this time she had four children and was married to the grandson of the famous composer Carl Maria von Weber. Moreover, she was the wife of the man who had furnished Mahler with Carl Maria’s unfinished sketches for a comic opera, which led to \u003cem\u003eDie drei Pintos\u003c\/em\u003e, a mix of Mahler’s own inspirations and rearrangements. On 20 January 1888 the opera was premiered at the Neues Stadttheater in Leipzig with its Kapellmeister Mahler conducting. That same month he started composing his \u003cem\u003eSymphonische Dichtung in Zwei Abtheilungen \u003c\/em\u003e(Symphonic Poem in Two Parts), later his First Symphony, and finished it in March. Mahler, already the very successful music director of the Hungarian National Opera, conducted the first performance of the work in Budapest on 20 November 1889. It got a cool if not hostile reception, mainly because of the ‘bizarre, vulgar and cacophonic extravaganza’s’ of the last two movements. At least this was how it was felt, with the public and the critics in bewilderment especially after the finale’s unsurpassed ferocity. The final chords were followed by utter silence, until a few members of the audience hesitantly began to applaud, quickly interspersed with demonstrative sounds of disapproval. Mahler left the hall in devastation, roaming through the dark streets, like an ‘outcast’.  A few years later he would write to Alma Schindler: “Sometimes it sent shivers down my spine. Damn it all, where do people keep their ears and hearts if they cannot hear that!” \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738666578244,"sku":"CC72355-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738666611012,"sku":"CC72355-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738666643780,"sku":"CC72355-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738666676548,"sku":"CC72355-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738666709316,"sku":"CC72355-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308222488900,"sku":"CC72355-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610526532,"sku":"CC72355S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610559300,"sku":"CC72355S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610592068,"sku":"CC72355S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72355.jpg?v=1790126988"},{"product_id":"cc72356-tchaikovsky-symphony-no-5-and-slavonic-march-op-35","title":"Tchaikovsky - Symphony no. 5 and Slavonic March op. 35","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eAfter completing the Third Symphony (1875) and the Fourth Symphony (1878), Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky did not turn to writing another symphony for 10 years. Although the composer resumed work on this form in 1885 in the Manfred Symphony, he did not include it in the numbered series, since it belonged to the genre of programme music. (The second piece on the recording, Marche Slave [Slavonic March] was written shortly before the Fourth Symphony as an occasional work for a benefit concert on behalf of the victims of the Turkish- Serbian War.) It was only after his first European tour in April 1888, when he conducted his own works and received the long awaited appraisal in Berlin, Paris and London, that he felt the energy to write a new symphony. Nonetheless, work on it was arduous and slow at the start. On May 30 he wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, that he was about to “squeeze a symphony from my benumbed brain”. He seems to have overcome this minor crisis very quickly, however, for the first draft of the work was already completed by June 22. The composer finished the orchestration on August 14 and writes contentedly to his friend and patroness: “I may say that this symphony does not take a back seat to the earlier ones.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738669429060,"sku":"CC72356-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738669461828,"sku":"CC72356-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738669494596,"sku":"CC72356-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738669527364,"sku":"CC72356-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738669560132,"sku":"CC72356-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308227076420,"sku":"CC72356-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610657604,"sku":"CC72356S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610690372,"sku":"CC72356S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334610723140,"sku":"CC72356S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72356.jpg?v=1790127030"},{"product_id":"cc72357-matthaus-passion","title":"Mätthaus-Passion","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eSigiswald Kuijken is intimately acquainted with the St. Matthew Passion. His fascination with the work was inspired back in the 1950s by a number of traditional performances. Kuijken has performed the passion around the world with his ensemble La Petite Bande. Twenty years ago, La Petite Bande (with Kuijken as leader and Gustav Leonhardt as conductor) released its first recording of the passion. The performance had soloists, a chamber choir and an instrumental ensemble adapted to the setting. Kuijken’s views on performance practice in the piece have since evolved radically. Groundbreaking musicological work in recent decades has brought him to performing the passion with a drastically reduced ensemble and no conductor. There is no “choir” in the usual sense of the word; the choir is composed of just the soloists without additional singers. And a lone soprano replaces the boys’ choir. Opinion on this approach has been and remains divided. But Kuijken certainly had his reasons for making the changes.\u003cbr\u003eTo what do we owe the St. Matthew Passion even today usually being performed by immense choirs and orchestras? “For that we have to look back to the 19\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003eth \u003c\/span\u003ecentury. It was then that Felix Mendelssohn became so enthralled with the music of Bach that he wanted to perform, among other things, the St. Matthew Passion. Theatricalism and grandiose forces fit perfectly with the 19\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003eth \u003c\/span\u003ecentury Romantic spirit. Composers at the time did nothing so gladly as arranging Bach’s music and adapting it to their personal taste. Later, even Arnold Schoenberg ventured into Bach’s music. He arranged a number of Bach’s organ works for large orchestra; he was convinced that this was the ideal way to ensure that they would survive in the 20\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003eth \u003c\/span\u003ecentury.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738676539716,"sku":"CC72357-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738676572484,"sku":"CC72357-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738676605252,"sku":"CC72357-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738676638020,"sku":"CC72357-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":57308227961156,"sku":"CC72357-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611050820,"sku":"CC72357S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611083588,"sku":"CC72357S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72357.jpg?v=1790127076"},{"product_id":"cc72361-symphonies-nos-4-6-vol-1","title":"Symphonies nos. 4 \u0026 6 Vol 1","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIf you want to perform his symphonies and surely if you want to record them, you must make a thorough study of Beethoven’s personal situation and that of the world around him. Here we can only set down a few short brushstrokes on an enormous empty metaphoric canvas. A canvas that must be filled completely, preferably painted true to life right down to the smallest details, using a fantastic palette of colours. When it is finished, we will see Beethoven, situated in his time. The painting will tell a story. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eWith this new Beethoven cycle conductor Jan Willem de Vriend, together with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, ventures to tell a new story. His story. With enormous passion and enthusiasm, he has immersed himself in the life and work of Beethoven. To gain the best possible understanding of Beethoven, he says, you must know something about the people around him: for example, his teachers Albrechtsberger and Neefe, who watched his career. You need to know what it was like in Bonn when he grew up there. You need to know that his grandfather enjoyed trading wine and that Beethoven therefore took pleasure in allowing himself to be paid in wine, for example by his publisher. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003eYou need to know where his roots are. You need to know the music of his pupils, such as Ries and Moscheles. Jan Willem de Vriend has conducted the music of Beethoven, of people who composed for him, of his contemporaries. He has been working on this intensively for the past twenty years. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738678505796,"sku":"CC72361-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738678538564,"sku":"CC72361-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738678571332,"sku":"CC72361-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738678604100,"sku":"CC72361-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738678636868,"sku":"CC72361-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308231369028,"sku":"CC72361-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611345732,"sku":"CC72361S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611378500,"sku":"CC72361S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611411268,"sku":"CC72361S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72361-1.jpg?v=1790127118"},{"product_id":"cc72362-beethoven-string-quartets-op-59-string-quintet-op-29","title":"Beethoven: String Quartets op. 59, String Quintet op. 29","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThis recording, by two generations of musicians from the Kuijken family (Veronica, Sigiswald, Sara and Wieland Kuijken), with my wife Marleen Thiers, 2nd viola in the quintet, was made with so-called ‘modern’ instruments. Although our name is generally linked with ‘period performance practice’, listeners should not expect or seek a deliberate, specific ‘historic’ tendency in this recording: this was not what defined our collaboration for this production... I would even venture to say that in the first place we allowed ourselves to be moved and motivated by the immense strength exuded by these Beethoven pieces, based on our own musical experience and intuition; what we shared was astonishment – and joy. As we went along we became increasingly aware that it can be a gift to have kindred genes; and that an instrument is simply an instrument, no more... Sigiswald Kuijken\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738679685444,"sku":"CC72362-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738679718212,"sku":"CC72362-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738679750980,"sku":"CC72362-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738679783748,"sku":"CC72362-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738679816516,"sku":"CC72362-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":57308232319300,"sku":"CC72362-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611575108,"sku":"CC72362S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611607876,"sku":"CC72362S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611640644,"sku":"CC72362S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72362.jpg?v=1790127159"},{"product_id":"cc72363-sonatas-for-four-hands","title":"Sonatas for four hands","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe four-hand repertoire was certainly not popular during the period that the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his slightly older sister Nannerl would be placed behind a clavier to entertain audiences with four-hand music. However, much had already been written for two or more keyboard instruments. Le Roux, Mattheson, Handel and Johann Sebastian Bach, for example, each contributed to an impressive repertoire for two or more harpsichords. For four-hand music (two performers playing a single instrument), the world would have to wait for Charles Burney, Johann Christian Bach and, most of all, for Mozart. He would have become acquainted with the repertoire through J.C. Bach during a concert trip to London. In all, Mozart wrote five duet sonatas and several separate works for pianoforte four-hand. \u003cbr\u003eOn this CD, the two four-hand pieces are Mozart’s last two and most monumental sonatas. They explore the limits of the pianoforte, both literally and regarding sound volume. Mozart did not shy away from giving both players an independent and often complicated and technically demanding part.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738681127236,"sku":"CC72363-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738681160004,"sku":"CC72363-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738681192772,"sku":"CC72363-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738681225540,"sku":"CC72363-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738681258308,"sku":"CC72363-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308233335108,"sku":"CC72363-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611804484,"sku":"CC72363S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611837252,"sku":"CC72363S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334611870020,"sku":"CC72363S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72363-1.jpg?v=1790127200"},{"product_id":"cc72364-symphonies-nos-1-5-vol-2","title":"Symphonies nos. 1 \u0026 5 Vol. 2","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eThe centuries-old discussion about whether Beethoven’s symphonies are endowed with extra-musical meaning sparked a vehement dispute between heart-and-soul Romantics such as E.T.A. Hoffmann and Wagner and nonformalists such as Eduard Hanslick, Schoenberg and Theodor Adorno. But is this discussion still necessary? The truth, after all, surely lies somewhere in the middle. Is it not inherent in music, as Carl Czerny and others proposed, that some sort of story always lies behind it and that this worked as a source of momentum in Beethoven’s composition? A story, however, can also be a single image, a feeling, or a musical idea that during the act of composition develops into something directly evoking images. Whether there is an extra-musical element is not so much the point. More important is what it evokes in the mind of the conductor who interprets it, using his musical background, knowledge and personality. And also, the images and feelings it stirs in the listener!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738682405188,"sku":"CC72364-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738682437956,"sku":"CC72364-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738682470724,"sku":"CC72364-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738682503492,"sku":"CC72364-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738682536260,"sku":"CC72364-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308237070660,"sku":"CC72364-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334612427076,"sku":"CC72364S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334612459844,"sku":"CC72364S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334612492612,"sku":"CC72364S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72364-1.jpg?v=1790127240"},{"product_id":"cc72378-italienisches-liederbuch-italian-songbook","title":"Italienisches Liederbuch - Italian songbook","description":"\u003cp\u003eCentral to the trove of lieder Austrian composer Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) created in his relatively short life are nearly 200 composed from 1888 to 1892. These include a cycle of 20 lieder on texts by Joseph von Eichendorff, 53 lieder on texts by Eduard Mörike, 51 lieder on texts by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the twopart Spanisches Liederbuch (44 lieder in all) and 22 lieder from part 1 of the Italienisches Liederbuch. After this, Wolf entered a four-year period marked by physical and psychological problems, which later grew more serious and ultimately fatal. Fortunately, he recovered, if only briefly, in 1896 and composed, among other things, the 24 lieder of the Italienisches Liederbuch’s part two. This was his last important composition, followed by only two lieder on texts by Lord Byron and three on texts by Michelangelo. The Michelangelo lieder, written in March 1897, were his last finished compositions. He made furious attempts that year to complete the opera Manuel Venegas, but without success. By the spring of 1898, his psychological condition had deteriorated to a degree that he was placed in an asylum. 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Above the manuscript of the Sonata for oboe, violin, chalumeau and organ, RV 779, Vivaldi wrote the names of the girls for whom the piece was intended: Pelegrina dall’ Oboè, Prudenza dal Contralto, Candida dalla Viola and Lucietta Organista\u003cspan class=\"s1\"\u003e*\u003c\/span\u003e. But since Pelegrina was by far the most accomplished oboist when Vivaldi worked at the Ospedale (the only other oboist mentioned in the archives is one Susanna, in 1726), we can assume that a number of the oboe concertos featured on this CD were also written for, and performed by, Pelegrina. And that is why I would like to dedicate this recording to her. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p2\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eTo you, Pelegrina dall’ Oboè, who came into this world with so little; but who managed to breathe colour and lustre into life with that beautiful, yet so obstinate, double-reed instrument; and who inspired one of the greatest Baroque composers to create little gems we can enjoy to this very day.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738684862788,"sku":"CC72389-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738684895556,"sku":"CC72389-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738684928324,"sku":"CC72389-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738684961092,"sku":"CC72389-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738684993860,"sku":"CC72389-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308242903364,"sku":"CC72389-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334613180740,"sku":"CC72389S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334613213508,"sku":"CC72389S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334613246276,"sku":"CC72389S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72389-1.jpg?v=1790127373"},{"product_id":"cc72500-symphonies-nos-7-8","title":"Symphonies nos. 7 \u0026 8","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e1812 was a difficult year for Beethoven. His general health and his hearing in particular were steadily declining. Throughout his life he had been unlucky in love; none of his relationships had lasted very long. 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In his Triple Concerto, published as Opus 56, Beethoven confronts this genre with a large orchestra. Anton Schindler, since 1822 Beethoven’s self-named secretary and also his first, sadly all too often untrustworthy biographer, stated that the piano part of the trio instrumentation was specified for Archduke Rudolf; but the facts do not support this. The Archduke was only sixteen years young when the work was written around 1804, a year marked by the composition of the Third and Fifth Symphonies, Fidelio and the “Appassionata”, and when the Triple Concerto was put to print in 1807 the piece was dedicated not to a schoolboy from the Imperial House, but to another member of the high nobility and confidant of the composer, Prince Lobkowitz.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738685714756,"sku":"CC72579-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738685747524,"sku":"CC72579-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738685780292,"sku":"CC72579-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738685813060,"sku":"CC72579-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738685845828,"sku":"CC72579-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308245655876,"sku":"CC72579-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334613770564,"sku":"CC72579S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334613803332,"sku":"CC72579S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334613836100,"sku":"CC72579S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72579-1.jpg?v=1790127459"},{"product_id":"cc72605-orest","title":"Orest","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eENTANGLED IN GUILT \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p3\"\u003eHistorically, this myth as told in the play \u003cem\u003eOrestes \u003c\/em\u003eby Euripides is often interpreted as propaganda for the transition to a patriarchal social order. Naturally, there are other interpretations that dispute this view. More than anything, I wanted to search for an explanation of the events that would overarch the sequences of an act and its revenge, one that would offer insight into factors that were always determined by external forces – that is to say, they were invented by gods – factors propelling the course of events. \u003cbr\u003eThe background to Orestes’s actions is a political concept of which he is unaware. The tradition says that Orestes allows himself to be overwhelmed by this concept and sees the orders from the god Apollo – who represents the concept – as justification for his murders; his affinity with these orders is even so great that to his mind, they come from within him. Orestes is not a very likeable figure; he is utterly spineless. But this type of character – chameleonic, sometimes insecure – will often have a vision, perhaps clouded, poorly defined, unsteady, but all the same a vision that saps the strength of certain influences which might otherwise easily turn him into a puppet, a tool in the hands of third parties. \u003cbr\u003eOrestes alternates between allowing himself to be led by what is ordained by outside forces, accompanied by the prospect of rewards, and his vision, which makes him think that it must be possible to escape to a new light, a new life. But he makes one mistake: he thinks he can leave the guilt behind him – and he will not discover until much later that he must live with the guilt in order to conquer it. Orestes will realise this when he manages to look at the girl Hermione and not kill her, as his sister demands. When this happens, he is free to go and leave behind him the influence of conventions. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Challenge Classics","offers":[{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738686107972,"sku":"CC72605-7","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738686140740,"sku":"CC72605-9","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738686173508,"sku":"CC72605-10","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":56738686206276,"sku":"CC72605-14","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 5ch Surround","offer_id":56738686239044,"sku":"CC72605-17","price":23.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo","offer_id":57308246901060,"sku":"CC72605-6","price":20.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"DSD 64 \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334614131012,"sku":"CC72605S1417","price":28.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 192 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334614163780,"sku":"CC72605S69","price":26.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"FLAC 96 kHz \/ 2ch Stereo \u0026 5ch Surround","offer_id":57334614196548,"sku":"CC72605S710","price":25.49,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0966\/7900\/2436\/files\/CC72605-1.jpg?v=1790127503"},{"product_id":"cc72384-violin-concerto-romances","title":"Violin Concerto \u0026 Romances","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eBeethoven’s Violin Concerto was beyond any doubt strongly influenced by the violin concertos of the French school, especially those of Giovanni Battista Viotta (1755-1824) and Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831). It was therefore no coincidence that Beethoven dedicated his Violin Sonata in A major, Op. 47, to Kreutzer, a violinist from Versailles who was one of the instrument’s great virtuosos. Kreutzer, however, never played the piece and complained that it was incomprehensible (“rageusement intelligible”). Beethoven was far ahead of his time for the instrument. The violin playing of Beethoven’s friend Franz Clement (1780-1842) was said to be especially intimate and gracious, with unfailing intonation and a highly developed bowing technique. That must have greatly appealed to Beethoven, for he was no fan of the dazzling, demonstrative type of playing in which so many violinists shone and resorted to to win over audiences. Clement, moreover, had earned respect as conductor of the Theater an der Wien and the composer of some 25 concertos.\u003cbr\u003eIt is hardly surprising that Beethoven dedicated his first and only violin concerto to Clement. The inscription above the manuscript reads: “Concert par Clemenza pour Clement primo Violino e direttore al theatro a Vienna Del L.V. 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