Christoph Pregardien, Michael Gees – Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin (2008)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 61:38 minutes | Scans included | 3,38 GB
or DSD64 2.0 Stereo (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 1,44 GB
or FLAC Stereo (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,24 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Challenge Classics # CC 72292
Christoph Prégardien and Michael Gees are, beyond the shadow of a doubt, among the greatest interpreters of Schubert’s song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin”. The cycle deals with a period in the life of a young miller lad as he wanders along a stream in search of work; he meets a mill-girl and falls in love with her; then loses her to another man and, in deep despair, drowns himself in the millstream. “Die schöne Müllerin” – consisting of twenty songs – is an amazing compendium of the human psych which deals with the miller’s emotions as he finds, and then loses, his love.
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Christoph Prégardien, Michael Gees – Winterreise op. 89, D. 911 (2013)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:46 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
Schubert’s “Winterreise” is one of the most famous song cycles that exist in classical music and musicians take it up again and again because of its beauty, sorrow and depth. It is about life itself and which performer does not want to give his or her opinion on life? Both tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianist Michael Gees have their own vision on the cycle. Playing together, a third view develops, combining their two visions into an exciting interpretation of Winterreise.
In this production the music lover has more ways than one to enjoy this Lieder cycle to the fullest. This luxurious Hybrid Super Audio edition (book SACD) contains song texts with English translations.
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Christoph Pregardien, Julius Drake – Schubert: Poetisches Tagebuch (2015)
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:12:30 minutes | 3,61 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records
In the years 1819-20, especially, Schubert was frequently drawn to the early poetry of Friedrich Schlegel, who by middle age had morphed from Romantic pantheist to conservative (some would say bigoted) minence grise in Viennese literary circles. Im Walde (which appeared after Schubert’s death under the title Waldes-Nacht) is a darkly ecstatic paean to the numinous powers of the forest. Filled with mysterious rustlings and murmurings (the ‘Forest Murmurs’ of Siegfried are already in view), and picturesque details – say, the lightning flashes and growling thunder in verse two – this torrential outpouring is Schubert at his most exalted and visionary. (more…)
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Christoph & Julian Pregardien, Michael Gees – Father and Son (2014)
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:13:52 minutes | 3,47 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records
Ever since the late eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth century, the collection and research of folksong texts were associated with the initiation of a tradition. A “folksong idea” began to spring up based on concrete historical sources and facts, which became a guiding light both for enlightened education and also for the classical and early romantic generation of writers — as a medium for the universal shaping of the human character, as symbol of a lost Golden Age and as a yearned-for “German nation” seen as a cultural archive. However, this ideal did not recognise a solidifi ed artefact in the creatively adapted and re-set ‘Volkslied’, but the traces of a practical experience — Johann Gottfried Herder , the inventor of the term ‘Volkslied’, felt himself transported back “away from paper (…) into the living emotion of the people”. Against the background of contemporary speculations about cultural theory, the association of word and music in song thus became a social act endowing a sense of identity, behind which the assumed substantial and elemental relationship between language and music mysteriously shimmers like a water mark. (more…)
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Christoph Pregardien, Michael Gees – Franz Schubert – Winterreise (2013
Digital eXtreme Definition FLAC Stereo (tracks) 24-bit/352,8 kHz | Time – 01:10:41 minutes | 4,72 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: spiritofturtle.com | Booklet, Front Cover | © Challenge Records / Northstar Recordings
Recorded: Galaxy Studios, Mol, Belgium, 2-5 September 2012
Schubert’s “Winterreise” is one of the most famous song cycles that exist in classical music and musicians take it up again and again because of its beauty, sorrow and depth. It is about life itself and which performer does not want to give his or her opinion on life? Both tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianist Michael Gees have their own vision on the cycle. Playing together, a third view develops, combining their two visions into an exciting interpretation of Winterreise.
In this production the music lover has more ways than one to enjoy this Lieder cycle to the fullest. This luxurious Hybrid Super Audio edition (book SACD) contains song texts with English translations.
Read more
Christoph Prégardien – Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin, Schwanengesang & Winterreise (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 03:24:09 minutes | 3,46 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
Is this an hommage to Schubert? Or just to a leading Lieder tenor of our time? Probably this box is both and it represents a clear reference for anyone who is a seasoned Lieder lover or a neophyte wanting to approach this genre.
I don’t say anything new when I state that the three Schubert’s Lieder cycles are the the pinnacle in the history of the art song. Not by chance any serious male singer wants to record at least one of these masterpieces.
Read moreChristoph Prégardien – Brahms: Complete Songs, Vol. 1 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]
Christoph Prégardien – Brahms: Complete Songs, Vol. 1 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:04:52 minutes | 578 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Naxos
This first volume of Brahms’ complete songs spans a period of nearly 25 years. A prolific composer of Lieder, Brahms’ adherence to traditional form was accompanied by a modern approach to compositional style. Thematically, most songs explore ideas of love, loneliness and solitude, perfectly exemplified by the Vier Gesänge, Op. 43.
In a similar way the Sechs Lieder, Op. 86 share a common theme of a farewell to life. This volume contains some of his greatest songs, including Die Mainacht, as well as littleknown jewels such as Versunken.
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Christoph Prégardien – Bach & Telemann: Cantatas for Baritone (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:07:14 minutes | 729 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi
Two cantatas by Telemann – logically unknown, as he wrote some 1,700 of them − only one by Bach – but one that reached cult status: Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen (I will gladly carry the Cross) −, here’s what’s on offer by tenor Christoph Prégardien (of German origin despite the “é”), and… Wait a second: even though we don’t exactly know for whom Telemann’s cantatas were originally written, Ich will den Kreuzstab was designed for a baritone, not a tenor, and there is no version transposed by Bach himself. But Christoph Prégardien, who’s now over sixty years old, opted to play it humble (or safe) and work with a much deeper range than Tamino or Ottavio, knowing that tenors can very well experience a loss in quality. A commendable decision that allows him to add some beautiful years to an already long and successful career as well as a change in repertoire. His very lyrical interpretation of these three cantatas demonstrates his commitment to the opera, as these cantatas are real dramatic scenes. Telemann, in particular, appears astonishing as ever with his unreal imagination and constant elegance that never gets in the way of profound emotion. For the overture, exit music and intermissions, the Vox Orchester offers some purely orchestral pages from Handel, Hasse and Telemann.
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Christoph Pregardien & Cyprien Katsaris – Auf Flügeln Des Gesanges – Romantic Songs and Transcriptions (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:12:24 minutes | 598 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Challenge Classics
„Following our first encounter on 7. June 2015 in Hamburg on the occasion of our concert with the Winterreise of Schubert, which proved to be a wonderful experience, and considering our perfect mutual understanding, I wondered whether Christoph Prégardien would be interested in a CD project. But what repertoire? Usually the Lieder aficionados are not interested in piano and pianophiles do not seem to be Lieder fans… Then I thought, how about bringing together those two categories of the human species? Suddenly… EURÊKA! (Thank you, Archimedes!) The concept would be a combination of German Lieder, each of them followed by a piano transcription. Christoph Prégardien immediately agreed.” (Cyprien Katsaris)
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Release Date: 2013
Genre: Classical
Production/Label: Challenge Classics / NorthStar Recording
Duration: 01:13:50 + 21:38
Quality: Blu-ray
Container: BDMV
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Audio codec: LPCM, DTS-HD
Video: MPEG-4 AVC Video 17971 kbps 1080i / 29.970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: LPCM Audio German 2.0 / 96 kHz / 4608 kbps / 24-bit
Audio#2: DTS-HD Master Audio German 5.1 / 192 kHz / 13776 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio#3: LPCM Audio German 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit (documentary)
Size: 23.23 GB
Schubert’s “Winterreise” is one of the most famous song cycles that exist in classical music and musicians take it up again and again because of its beauty, sorrow and depth. It is about life itself and which performer does not want to give his or her opinion on life? Both tenor Christoph Prégardien and pianist Michael Gees have their own vision on the cycle. Playing together, a third view develops, combining their two visions into an exciting interpretation of Winterreise.
In this production the music lover has more ways than one to enjoy this Lieder cycle to the fullest. This Bluray edition gives you the possibility to watch Winterreise on film as recorded in the studio. This is done in a beautiful manner with close-ups so we can see the expressions on the faces of the musicians and makes for an intense musical experience. It also includes documentary: Winterreise, Der dritte Weg (The Third Way) with interviews with Prégardien and Gees and behind-the-scenes footage of the studio recording process.
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