Max Bruch - Oratorio MOSES Op. 67 - Maulbronn Monastery Edition

<BODY> 2-CD-Box with Peter Lika, Birgitte Christensen, Stefan Vinke, Kantorei Maulbronn, Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg, Conductor: Juergen Budday - DDD, KuK 96, ISBN 3-930643-96-0, EAN 42 6000591 032 2, © by K&K Verlagsanstalt. Max Bruch (1838-1920) - MOSES - Oratorio in four movements - A concert recording from the minster at abbey Maulbronn Peter Lika (Moses), who began his singing career as a boy soloist with the Regensburger Domspatzen, is considered one of the leading basses in the concert and opera repertoire. His unmistakable timbre is paired with delicately balanced dramatic expressive power, which makes him a natural soloist for roles such as that of Moses. It is not surprising, therefore, that conductors like Masur, Schreier, Rilling, Gardiner, Marriner, Norrington, Celibidache and Herreweghe have appreciated working with Lika, as have renowned orchestras, not least for his extensive repertoire and many years of experience, also with early music. Performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and nearly all of the German radio orchestras have brought Peter Lika to the major musical centres of Europe, Asia and the USA. The Kantorei Maulbronn is the large oratorio choir of the monastery in Maulbronn, founded in 1948. In addition to regular participation in the services at the monastery, the performance of great oratorios is the focus of its choral work. Their concert activity with renowned orchestras and soloists in Germany and abroad demonstrates the high quality of this ambitious amateur choir. The German television station ZDF has done a portrait of the Kantorei, and the choir has participated in live radio recordings for the SDR and Deutschlandfunk. Jürgen Budday is director of church music and artistic director of the concert series at the monastery of Maulbronn, of the Kantorei and of the Maulbronn Chamber Choir. He studied music pedagogy, church music and musicology at the academy of music in Stuttgart and since 1979, has taught at the Evangelisch-theologisches Seminar in Maulbronn. For his teaching and artistic activity he has received the Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande, the Bruno-Frey-Preis of the Landesakademie Ochsenhausen and was named “best conductor“ at the International Choral Festival in Prague. Since 2002, Jürgen Budday has also held the chair of the choral committee of the Deutscher Musikrat. Several concert recordings have been made under his artistic direction that received international recognition and high praise from critics. These have included the Handel oratorios Jephtha, Samson, Judas Maccabaeus and Saul with Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Nancy Argenta and Stephen Varcoe. About the Maulbronn Monastery Edition Publishing culture in its authentic form entails for us capturing and recording for posterity outstanding performances and concerts. The performers, audience, opus and room enter into an intimate dialogue that in its form and expression, its atmosphere, is unique and unrepeatable. It is our aim, the philosophy of our house, to enable the listener to acutely experience every facet of this symbiosis, the intensity of the performance. The results are unparalleled interpretations of musical and literary works, simply - audiophile snapshots of permanent value. The concerts in Maulbronn monastery, which we document with this edition, supply, in many ways, the ideal conditions for our aspirations. It is, above all, the atmosphere of the romantic, candle-lit arches, the magic of the monastery in its unadulterated sublime presence and tranquillity that impresses itself upon the performers and audience of these concerts. Renowned soloists and ensembles from the international arena repeatedly welcome the opportunity to appear here - enjoying the unparalleled acoustic and architectural beauty of this World Heritage Site (monastery church, cloister gardens, lay refectory, etc.), providing exquisite performances of secular and sacred music. Under the patronage of the Evangelical Seminar, the Maulbronn Monastery Cloister Concerts were instigated in 1968 with an abundance of musical enthusiasm and voluntary leadership. Within the hallowed walls of the classical grammar and boarding school, existent for more than 450 years, some of society's great thinkers, poets and humanists, such as Kepler, Hölderlin, Herwegh and Hesse received their first impressions. The youthful elan, the constructive participation of the pupils, continuing the tradition of their great predecessors, constructs an enlightened climate in which artistic ambitions can especially thrive. Twenty-five concerts take place between May and September. Their success can be largely attributed to the many voluntary helpers from near and far. There is a break for winter (the monastery is not heated!). Flourishing culture in a living monument, created for the delight of the live audience and, last but not least, you the listener, are the ideals we document with this series. Andreas Otto Grimminger & Josef-Stefan Kindler </BODY>