Franz Schubert / Karl Aage Rasmussen (arr.) Sakontala

Throughout most of his life Franz Schubert was concerned with church music. When he was eleven he was chosen as treble soloist at his local church in the Vienna suburb of Lichtenthal and soon afterwards he was admitted to the choir of the Imperial Court Chapel, directed by Antonio Salieri. Soon he also began to compose; his earliest surviving sacred pieces date from 1812. During his lifetime his church music achieved a comparatively wide degree of acceptance but after his death, most notably, his smaller works were unjustly forgotten. The Carus programme encompasses Schubert’s complete sacred compositions and it is intended to emphasize the wide range of his works in this area. Many of the smaller liturgical compositions are published here for the first time in separate editions. What is to be discovered is a fascinating œuvre, rooted in the ‘stile antico’ of Antonio Salieri and in the compositions of the Viennese classical masters, but whose exquisite lyricism and harmonic subtlety reveal a typically Schubertian world of expression: works with great power of conviction and exceptional musical beauty. Personal details

Karl Aage Rasmussen wurde 1947 in Kolding, Dänemark geboren. Seine Ausbildung erhielt er an der Staatlichen Musikakademie in Aarhus, wo er später für mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte als Kompositionsprofessor lehrte. Außer dem Opernprojekt hat sich Rasmussen mit Schubert beschäftigt in seinem Versuch einer Rekonstruktion derjenigen Reste, die seines Erachtens zur Gasteiner-Sinfonie gehören könnten, die im Allgemeinen als verloren gilt, sowie in seiner Orchestrierung von Schuberts großem Schiller-Melodram Der Taucher (im Auftrag des international renommierten dänischen Sängers Bo Skovhus). Rasmussen ist ebenso als Autor von Essays und Büchern hervorgetreten, darunter mit Werken über Robert Schumann, Glenn Gould und kürzlich mit einer umfangreichen Biografie des Pianisten Sviatoslav Richter. Sein letzter Film über Carl Nielsen (The Light and the Darkness) fand viel Beifall und ist nun – in vier Sprachen – als DVD erhältlich. Darüber hinaus war Rasmussen als Programmgestalter für Neue Musik im Dänischen Rundfunk, als Ko-Herausgeber des Danish Music Magazine und als Mitglied des Danish Music Council aktiv; hinzu kommt eine rege Vortragstätigkeit in vielen europäischen Ländern und in den USA. Viele Jahre war er künstlerischer Direktor des bedeutenden NUMUS-Festivals. Seine Musik umfasst Werke in vielen Genres, einschließlich der Oper, und wurde in mehr als dreißig Ländern aufgeführt. Er lebt in Dänemark und Rom. 1991 erhielt er den Carl-Nielsen-Preis und 1997 den Wilhelm-Hansen-Komponisten-Preis. Personal details

Karl Aage Rasmussen wurde 1947 in Kolding, Dänemark geboren. Seine Ausbildung erhielt er an der Staatlichen Musikakademie in Aarhus, wo er später für mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte als Kompositionsprofessor lehrte. Außer dem Opernprojekt hat sich Rasmussen mit Schubert beschäftigt in seinem Versuch einer Rekonstruktion derjenigen Reste, die seines Erachtens zur Gasteiner-Sinfonie gehören könnten, die im Allgemeinen als verloren gilt, sowie in seiner Orchestrierung von Schuberts großem Schiller-Melodram Der Taucher (im Auftrag des international renommierten dänischen Sängers Bo Skovhus). Rasmussen ist ebenso als Autor von Essays und Büchern hervorgetreten, darunter mit Werken über Robert Schumann, Glenn Gould und kürzlich mit einer umfangreichen Biografie des Pianisten Sviatoslav Richter. Sein letzter Film über Carl Nielsen (The Light and the Darkness) fand viel Beifall und ist nun – in vier Sprachen – als DVD erhältlich. Darüber hinaus war Rasmussen als Programmgestalter für Neue Musik im Dänischen Rundfunk, als Ko-Herausgeber des Danish Music Magazine und als Mitglied des Danish Music Council aktiv; hinzu kommt eine rege Vortragstätigkeit in vielen europäischen Ländern und in den USA. Viele Jahre war er künstlerischer Direktor des bedeutenden NUMUS-Festivals. Seine Musik umfasst Werke in vielen Genres, einschließlich der Oper, und wurde in mehr als dreißig Ländern aufgeführt. Er lebt in Dänemark und Rom. 1991 erhielt er den Carl-Nielsen-Preis und 1997 den Wilhelm-Hansen-Komponisten-Preis. Personal details

The Kammerchor Stuttgart is regarded as one of the best ensembles of its kind. Over its fifty-year existence, Frieder Bernius has developed the choir into an exceptional ensemble acclaimed by audiences and press alike. This has led to invitations for the choir to perform at all the important European festivals. In Germany the chamber choir performs at festivals and in concert halls in repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. Frieder Bernius and his ensemble have received numerous accolades for their contribution to new music. The Kammerchor Stuttgart has made over 80 CDs and LPs, numerous of which have been awarded international recording prizes (including the Edison award, Diapason d’or, Gramophone Choice, Classical Internet Award, International Classical Music Award, and German Record Critics’ Award prizes). The International Federation for Choral Music has invited the ensemble to sing at the 1st, 4th and 10th World Symposia on Choral Music in Vienna, Sydney and Seoul. Regular tours of North America and Asia since 1988 and a South America tour reflect the Kammerchor Stuttgart’s international reputation. Since 1984 the top ensemble has also been invited to Israel biennially. Personal details

The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is one of the world's leading orchestras, captivating audiences everywhere with its unique style of music-making. The Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi has been the orchestra's Artistic Director since 2004.


One of the many highlights of the collaboration with Paavo Järvi has been their Beethoven Project, on which conductor and orchestra concentrated for six years. Their Beethoven interpretations have been acclaimed worldwide by audiences and critics alike as benchmark performances. Following the Beethoven Project The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Paavo Järvi focused on Robert Schumann's symphonic works with equal success.
The latest project of the orchestra and its conductor is the German composer Johannes Brahms. The first CD (Sony/RCA) of the project – Symphony No. 2, Tragic Ouverture and the Academic Festi-val Ouverture – was released in autumn 2017 and received the Opus Klassik in October 2018. The second CD, including Symphony No. 1 and the Haydn-Variations, followed in autumn 2018. With the third and fourth Symphony, released in March 2019, the symphony cycle has come to completion.
Highlight of the project was the internationally acclaimed performance of ›A German Requiem‹ on the 10th of April 2018 at Bremen Cathedral, 150 years after the first performance. The recording has now been released on DVD and Blu-ray by C-Major. In October 2019, ›The Brahms Code‹ – an excit-ing TV/DVD documentary about the Brahms Project produced by Deutsche Welle/Unitel – was re-leased and is the current German Record Critics' Award winner in the category music film (listed 1/20).


The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen has been honoured with countless prizes such as Echo, Opus and Diapason d'Or for its recordings and the unique education project with the Gesamtschule Bremen-Ost in Osterholz-Tenever, the Zukunftslabor. For years, the orchestra has cultivated close musical friendships with international soloists such as Christian Tetzlaff, Maria João Pires, Janine Jansen, Igor Levit, Hilary Hahn and Martin Grubinger.


The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is permanent guest orchestra at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Festival Orchestra of Kissinger Sommer. Personal details

Frieder Bernius’s work has earned great worldwide recognition. He is in demand internationally as a conductor and as a teacher. His principal artistic collaborators are the ensembles he founded himself, the Kammerchor Stuttgart, the Barockorchester Stuttgart, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart and the Klassische Philharmonie Stuttgart. As a guest conductor, he has collaborated repeatedly with, for example, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and the Streicherakademie Bozen. Great stylistic versatility is Frieder Bernius’s hallmark. Whether he conducts vocal works by Monteverdi, Bach, Händel, Mozart, Beethoven, Fauré and Ligeti, stage music by Mendelssohn or symphonies by Haydn, Burgmüller and Schubert, his work always aims for a sound that is at once unmistakably personal and at the same time oriented towards the original period sound ideal. He devotes himself equally to the rediscovery of 18th century operas and to first performances of contemporary compositions. He is particularly interested in the musical history of southwestern Germany. Carus-Verlag has awarded Frieder Bernius a Golden CD for his complete recording of the sacred music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. The award was presented to him during the German Choir Festival in Stuttgart 2016. The sale of over 250,000 recordings, which has been acclaimed with a number of awards, has made a not insignificant contribution to what today is the obvious presence of Mendelssohn's complete œuvre in the concert repertoire. Personal details

Simone Nold received her training at the Munich Musikhochschule and attended the Lied classes of Helmut Deutsch and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Since 1996 she has been a member of the Berlin State Opera (Unter den Linden), where her roles have included Pamina, Konstanze, Ännchen and Madeleine. Her stage repertoire extends from Baroque works to contemporary music. As well as songs and chamber music, Simone Nold’s concert repertoire embraces the major oratorios and masses. She has performed with such conductors as Pierre Boulez, Adam Fischer, Peter Schreier, Frieder Bernius, Philippe Herreweghe and Christoph Eschenbach. She has made guest appearances in the major musical cities of Europe and North America and has taken part in numerous radio and television broadcasts. Personal details

Donát Havár completed his vocal studies at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule with a distinction in 2004. This was followed by further study at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. As a member of the Bonn Theater company he sang Tamino, Don Ottavio, Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Handel’s Jephtha. At the Berlin State Opera he sang Melito in Telemann’s Der Geduldige Sokrates under René Jacobs. In 2006 he made his debut at La Scala, Milan, as Aceste in Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba under Giovanni Antonini. He has sung Ferrando in Così fan tutte at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Further guest engagements have taken him to the Opéra National du Rhin, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad. In addition Donát Havár is one of the most sought after concert-hall tenors. Personal details

Bass Martin Snell graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with honors in 1994. He won first prizes in numerous singing competitions. After gaining early experience as a member of the Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera, he was engaged to perform at the St. Gallen Stadttheater and the theaters of Basel and Lucerne. He has since made guest appearances at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Berlin State Opera as well as the Bayreuth Festival, where he recently sang Hermann Ortel in Katharina Wagner’s production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The singer’s repertoire ranges from Monteverdi and Handel via Mozart and Rossini to music by Gounod, Janácek, Verdi and Wagner. Personal details

Since winning first prize at the 2000 ARD Music Competition in Munich, Konrad Jarnot has appeared in all the major international concert halls, including New York's Lincoln Center, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall in London and the Zurich Tonhalle. He regularly performs in operas and concerts with such conductors as Riccardo Chailly, Philippe Herreweghe, Frieder Bernius and Peter Schreier, and with orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Orchestre National de France. His artistic activities are documented in numerous radio and television productions, and on CD recordings that have been awarded the Prize of the German Record Critics and the Diapason d'Or. Personal details

Stephan Loges received his earliest musical training in the Dresden Kreuzchor before studying singing in Berlin and London. Through his extensive experience in the oratorio and opera repertoire, he has since become one of the most sought after singers of his generation. Numerous first prizes in international singing competitions attest to his high artistic standards. He has given song recitals at London's Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Schleswig-Holstein music festival. He regularly undertakes concerts with prominent conductors and sings with orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, or the Gabrieli Consort. Personal details