Hardly any other concert marks the city of Munich’s musical history as strikingly as the premiere of Gustav Mahler’s 8th symphony, the Symphony of a Thousand, which struck real waves of enthusiasm within the city’s cultural scene, and beyond. It marked a memorable triumph for the composer, whose works had regularly been performed in Munich since 1896. Mahler felt his art form was understood by the people of Munich.

A sound so overwhelmingly rich and manifold that it almost transcends the ensemble producing it; a wealth of colours bordering on the boundless; a swarm of teeming shapes that is too dense for our ears to unravel; a whole that is far more than its parts, yet does not swallow them. These may be some of the first impressions evoked by the music of Michael Pelzel. Pelzel himself uses the image of a river that takes all manner of things with it; taking up the metaphor, one could say that the place of Pelzel’s ideal listener is not on the shore, but in the midst of the current. This recording brings together a multitude of performers: Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Ensemble ascolta, Peter Rundel, ensemble recherche, Ernesto Molinari, Basel Sinfonietta, Jetpack Bellerive, WDR Sinfonieorchester and Bas Wiegers.

SOMM Recordings’ historic complete survey of Charles Villiers Stanford’s String Quartets by the Dante Quartet reaches its end with a third volume focusing on Nos. 1 and 2, and the first recording of No. 6. Already acclaimed as a composer of choral music, Stanford came relatively late to the string quartet form, composing his first two at the age of 39 in 1891. Six more followed over the next three decades, including the Op. 122 String Quartet, No. 6 in 1910. This final volume features the early String Quartets, Opp. 44 (No. 1) and 45 (No. 2) which share a concern for meticulous use of individual instrument voices and a leaning towards lyricism.

A time there was when concert programmes comprised a merry medley of music high and low, the short and sweet alongside the longer and the lofty. That changed in the second half of the 19th century, when Richard Wagner and others introduced the concept of the “symphony concert”, usually in three weighty parts, namely an overture, a solo concerto and a symphony. With today’s emphasis on “music communication”, things seem to have gone full circle.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music.
MASTER ALBUM… The baroque style at its best! Classical arrangements in the RENAISSANCE work is really interesting.
The band style is quite made for that!

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
Hooray! Another outstanding Renaissance album! Compared to the previous album “Ashes are burning”, the bass is more timid, but it still sounds as loud and bottom as Yes and Rush of the 70’s.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
OH WOW! Another perfect Renaissance album. Maybe Annie Haslam has her best voice on this record: using headphones, the experience is more than pleasant! Other musicians’ backing vocals support very well Annie’s lead vocals.

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection
All change
A slightly misleading title for this album, as it was actually the third release under the Renaissance name. In fairness though, the line up completely changed prior to the release of this album, which saw Annie Haslam take on vocal duties for the first time.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
No illusion here…don't miss this beauty
If you've even been confused about the two line-ups of Renaissance and how the story played out, you need to look no further than our band page here which has a forum thread called "A Renaissance confusion" written by Joolz which spells out this complete history in full detail.

Excellent addition to any prog-rock music collection.
Think of Illusion, think of Renaissance. The history of the two bands is very much intertwined, and while the band bearing the name Renaissance came out on top in terms of success and longevity, the quality of Illusion's output should not be underestimated.

Detlev Glanert (b. 1960) is a contemporary German composer who found early success with his opera Der Spiegel des großen Kaisers (‘The Big Emperor’s Mirror’), which won the Rolf Liebermann Opera Award in 1995. His newest stage work, Oceane, was premiered on April 28, 2019 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. It enthused both the audience and critics and was hailed as “one of the most exciting new operas of recent times” by the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. Glanert and the writer Hans- Ulrich Treichel conceived the libretto loosely according to Theodor Fontane's fragment Oceane von Parceval. It tells the story of Oceane, a mystical female creature of the sea, that comes to land in search of the ability to feel emotions.