Christoph Konig

Christoph König & Soloists Européens Luxembourg – Schubert / Berio (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:18:26 minutes | 763 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON

Just before his death in 1828 at the age of just 31, Franz Schubert was at work on his 10th Symphony in D major D936a, and had signed up for counterpoint lessons with Simon Sechter, who later taught the young Anton Bruckner. The 10th was destined to become yet another unfinished Schubert work, and his 6th unfinished symphony, but the extensive sketches are fascinating and show Schubert clearly moving into new sound worlds that anticipate Mahler in the central slow movement. Berio’s ingenious work ‘Renderings’ brings Schubert’s extensive sketches alive by creating a new work around and within the framework of the unfinished symphony.

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Christoph Konig – Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 59:53 minutes | 991 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON

This new recording from Christoph König and Soloists Européens Luxembourg features Dvorak’s evergreen ”New World” symphony alongside Charles Ives’s Washington’s Birthday and Aaron Copland’s Quiet City. In the 19th and 20th centuries, for those leaving the Old World – meaning in most cases Europe – America represented the hope of starting a new life unshackled from the past and its politics. America was, for many, a land of dreams. It is this reflective and dreamy quality which unites these three different compositions, each one describing in its own way the land once known as the New World.

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Christoph König – Beethoven: The Symphonies (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 06:30:18 minutes | 6,88 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RUBICON

With many of the Beethoven 250 anniversary events sadly cancelled, the great man’s genius can still be celebrated thanks to the many new recordings of his works appearing during 2020. A new cycle of the symphonies is a big event for any orchestra, and the superb Solistes Europeèn Luxembourg and their chief conductor Christoph König have over the past few years been recording all these ground breaking masterpieces. The 9th was recorded in the summer of 2019, and the 2nd and 10th were recorded in 2020 just before the Coronavirus pandemic struck. As you would expect from this orchestra and conductor, these are individualistic and searching interpretations – anyone who has heard their recording of the ‘Eroica’(RCD1020 ‘powerful and rich in detail’ Sunday Times) will know what to expect. For this complete cycle there is a new recording of the ‘Eroica’ so expect more surprises! The 10th Symphony 1st movement in Dr.Barry Cooper’s realisation from the composer’s extensive sketches and Carl Czerny’s recollections of Beethoven playing through passages on the piano.

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