6 Questions for Nicholas Kok
I wrote a pop song when I was 12, called ‘Fire’. I remember that it was in C major and that the music, which was heavily influenced by Elton John, was better than the lyrics, which were shocking!
Personalities
We take a look at fascinating biographies, or report on particular aspects in the works of Bach, Mozart or Mendelssohn, Matsushita, Miškinis or Močnik. And we present the performers on our CD label, such as Frieder Bernius and the Stuttgart Kammerchor, Hans-Christoph Rademann and the Gaechinger Cantorey, and Calmus Ensemble. As well as this, you will get to meet our editors who report on their editions published by Carus - all true experts of choral music.
Fanny Hensel’s songs as a mirror of her life
Caught between artistic aspirations and social pressures: In the 1830s and 1840s, Fanny Hensel composed a large number of songs. The compositions bear witness to her musical maturity and stylistic diversity. However, these years were not only a time of artistic creativity, but also personal difficulties.
Our Dream Concert
Any jubilee, whether a birthday or the anniversary of someone’s death or even a premiere, is always a great opportunity to spotlight a particular work. We asked around at Carus to find out what our colleagues would like to play and sing in their choirs in the coming years. Perhaps you can borrow one or two of their ideas!
6 Questions for Stephan Görg
My most emotional experience was putting together my first concert with Vocal Journey (the jazz and pop choir of the Cologne University of Music and Dance) and my band after the pandemic in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, as conductor, composer, arranger and pianist!
6 questions for Martín Letelier
As a performer, I once participated in a version of John Cage’s ASLAP that lasted four uninterrupted days. It was performed on the organ of a beautiful church in a former monastery in Santiago de Chile, and many organists participated in two-hour shifts. I played in the middle of the night, and it was an almost transcendental experience to be in that church, enveloped by the sound of the organ, especially considering that I only had three chord changes in two hours. It was the closest thing to a musical “trance” that I had ever experienced.
6 Questions for Marc L. Vogler
Born in 1998, he began playing the piano at the age of four and composed his first opera Streichkonzert at the age of sixteen, which premiered at the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen in 2016. In the same year, he began studying composition with Manfred Trojahn at the Robert Schumann University, which he completed with a master’s degree in 2023 after studying at the Cologne University of Music and Dance with Brigitta Muntendorf and Miroslav Srnka.
6 Questions for Grayston (Bill) Ives
Bill Ives has devoted himself entirely to choral music. Several of his works have been published by Carus, most recently the Christmas composition ‘Three Points of Light’.
Puccinis Preludio a Orchestra
A previously unknown manuscript in the Puccini Archive in Torre del Lago was identified as the autograph score of the Preludio a Orchestra – and it turned out to be complete! The fourteen missing measures have been copied from this source, so that the complete Preludio can now be performed in its original form.
Women who write musical history
Today the biggest pop stars in the world are women. Beyoncé, of course, and above all Taylor Swift, Adele, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and, in Germany, Shirin David and Helene Fischer. They don’t just inspire the masses musically with their songs; they also influence politics and society. Why is it so different in the world of classical music and so-called high culture?
The Missa Papae Marcelli and its context
The origin of the myth surrounding the mass dates back to 1607, when the musician and theorist Agostino Agazzari, in his treatise on the basso continuo, directly relates the composition of the Papae Marcelli to the issue of the intelligibility of the text in polyphonic works. Although it was then taken up even more decisively by Adriano Banchieri and Ludovico Cresolli, this cause-and-effect relationship has, however, no historical foundation, except for the temporal coincidence between its composition and the events relating to the Council of Trent.
