Gerd Albrecht

As part of its series of historic recordings, the audite label presents another notable jewel. On 5 March 1963 two great virtuosos made their Berlin débuts with orchestra in the same concert: the then 18-year-old cellist Jacqueline du Pré and the 22-year-old pianist Bruno Leonardo Gelber.

Du Pré’s interpretation of the Schumann Cello Concerto seems more vivid and contains greater contrasts even than her later recording of the work. With his reading of Brahms’ First Piano Concerto, Gelber communicates a conception of a large-scale work, shaping the inner contrasts and connections without ever losing sight of the overall coherence. For everyone who is interested in the history of interpretation, these two live documents of a great moment in Berlin’s post-war musical life are a must.

This CD forms part of our series “Legendary Recordings” and bears the stamp “1st Master Release”. This term stands for the exceptional quality of audite’s archive releases which are all, without exception, produced using original tapes from the radio archives. Usually, these are the original analogue tapes with tape speeds of up to 76 cm/s which are of astonishingly high quality, even by today’s standards. In addition, the process of re-mastering – executed with professional expertise and sensitivity – reveals hitherto hidden details of the interpretations, creating a sonic image of superior quality. CD releases produced from private recordings of radio broadcasts or old 78rpm records cannot match this level of sound quality.

Both Berg’s and Gurlitt’s versions of Wozzeck were written roughly at the same time, but the early popularity of Berg’s work contributed to the speedy disappearance of Gurlitt’s composition. This recording gives us the opportunity to hear this lesser known setting.

Unusually, the voice parts are positioned in the orchestra.

After Orfeo's complete recording of The King and the Charcoal Burner, which was awarded Gramophone Editor’s Choice, they now present a further instalment of their Dvorák opera cycle with the WDR Cologne Symphony Orchestra under Gerd Albrecht. Based on a Czech folk tale, it is the humorous story of the shrewish Kate who allows herself to be dragged to hell by a blundering devil who is out 'in the field'.The result, for him, is disastrous.The real beneficiaries of this 'dangerous liaison' are the crafty shepherd Jirka and a princess who at the start is not well-liked by her people. Gerd Albrecht was able to fill these roles with international stars who all had experience of singing Dvorák already. Michelle Breedt in the title role, takes quite audible pleasure at singing a comic pendant to her serious mezzo roles such as Fricka at Bayreuth. Peter Mikuláš sings the pitiful devil Marbuel, holding his own against his highly strung female counterpart with his undiminished, rich bass voice; the same is true of his fellow bass,Arutjun Kotchinian, in the part of Lucifer.We breathe a deep sigh of relief along with the Princess when she at the end succeeds in evading the clutches of this arch-devil - especially since Olga Romanko knows how to make her sympathetic, while also assigning her the necessary dramatic weight with her luminous Verdi soprano voice. And as Jirka, Peter Straka proves once more that with his beautiful, idiomatic tenor voice he is unequalled in the world when it comes to the Czech operatic repertoire.The two choirs involved have also appeared repeatedly in Albrecht's Dvorák cycle, and their contribution is deserving of special mention here.They play a major role in Dvorák's massed scenes, sweeping the listener along with their rousing, folksy dance and march rhythms.

These recordings taken from the legendary Capriccio-Archive bring some of the world’s leading singers together.

The composer Viktor Ullmann (1898-1944) could not have predicted that his name would come to be inseparably linked to the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto. Not only does this recollection of a particularly black page in western history continue to accompany his music, but the label ‘degenerate music’ (Entartete Musik) is evoked time and again. In recent years, Ullmann’s largely unknown body of work has once again attracted interest. His opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis has been performed many times and his other works are also making their way on to concert programmes. It seems odd at first that mention is made here of two symphonies. In the strict sense Ullmann did not write any symphonies. His notes on the 5th and 7th Piano Sonatas suggest, however, that he intended to transcribe these works for orchestra. After his horrible death, the composer and conductor Bernhard Wulff did that in his place. Gerd Albrecht brings a real understanding and commitment to compositions of Viktor Ullmann in directing the Brussels Philharmonic (previously the Flemish Radio Orchestra), providing us with an interpretation of music which is both fascinating in its own right and of the highest quality, whilst being the more poignant for being composed when Ullmann was being held captive in one of the most infamous concentration camps established during the course of the Second World War.

First staged in 1990, Hans Werner Henze's opera Das verratene Meer is based on Yukio Mishima's novel Gogo no eiko (The Sailor who fell from Grace with the Sea) and harks back to the traditions of literary naturalism and the verismo of early 20th-century music theatre. At the suggestion of the conductor Gerd Albrecht, Henze prepared a Japanese version of the score that was performed for the first time in Salzburg in 2006. Under Albrecht's direction, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI gave a sympathetic account of an iridescent score that ranges from exotic reminiscences of Japan to the impressions of a large city and from the atmospheric portrait of a doomed love story to a drama about juvenile violence, all of which strands are tightly interwoven right up to the moment of the final fatal confrontation in the closing scene of the opera.The cast includes three outstanding singing actors, the soprano Mari Midorikawa, the tenor Jun Takahashi and the baritone Tsuyoshi Mihara, all of whom create gripping portraits of the widow Fusako Kuroda, her 13-year-old son and the boy's stepfather.The recording affords further proof of the Salzburg Festival's ongoing commitment to broadening its repertory and to its desire to juxtapose the old and the new in thrilling ways that never compromise on quality.

It is a truism that each evening in the theatre is a unique event that cannot be repeated, even as part of a run of performances. One such exceptional performance was the first of three concert performances of Saverio

Mercadante's rarely performed Il Giuramento, threatened with cancellation when the tenor scheduled to sing the main role fell ill and it seemed impossible to find a replacement.

In the event, Plácido Domingo sang the part flawlessly after only a day in which to learn the role, thereby underscoring what, even then, was the exceptional position that he has maintained in the operatic world ever since.