Carus companions

Back in 1980 Günter Graulich approached me with a plan for a recording of some choral works by Felix Mendelssohn after hearing the Kammerchor Stuttgart in a concert. Looking back to that time, a time when Mendelssohn was still regarded as a “less profound” composer, this was a tremendous gamble! His compositions were not properly recognised because of their typically two-dimensional Baroque or Romantic character, and were often performed too bombastically.

But at the same time, this fanned the flames of my enthusiasm for Mendelssohn which began in the 1970s when he was really out of fashion. Gradually Günter’s editorial direction and our recordings revealed these vocal works, but it was not until shortly before Mendelssohn’s 200th anniversary that the complete edition and recording were finished, often going hand-in-hand. So, it remains for me to say, it is great that Günter Graulich followed his publisher’s instinct. Where would we be today without this music! 

I would like to warmly congratulate Carus-Verlag on your 50th birthday! Günter Graulich approached me over 20 years ago during the Marktoberdorf Choir Competition and said: “I want to make CDs with you!” This conversation later led to the Schütz Complete Recording by the Dresdner Kammerchor which I conducted. All I can say is: what entrepreneurial vision. Choral music is now unimaginable without Carus-Verlag, they are simply indispensable. We are grateful for this, and wish you all the best and much success for the next 50 years!

Once upon a time, back in the last millennium, Günter Graulich explained to me in detail how he flew to Korea in the early years of Carus-Verlag to recruit Frau Shin for the sheet music production department. I simply thought, “What a crazy guy. He flies to Korea to do business without speaking a word of Korean.” I met his son Johannes for the first time in Cannes at Midem in 2001. In the evening there was a celebration and everyone had to down a glass of beer. When it was Johannes’s turn he didn’t hesitate for long, and drank a large beer in front of my Korean friends and musician colleagues. When loud respectful applause erupted, I thought to myself: YES, I’ve come to the right publisher. And that was it.

50 years of Carus Verlag – an anniversary like any other? Well, for me, it awakens all the four senses: I smell coal dust in the cellar of Günter Graulich’s parents’ house, I hear music on the Youtube channel, I see rows of complete editions of popular composers and of music and choral collections, and I taste the very essence of trust and appreciation. I myself have experienced this taste. At our first meeting in the Gebelsbergstraße in Stuttgart, where the sofa almost swallowed me up, to our more recent encounters – which have sadly become less often. Günter, together with his energetic wife Waltraud, has fulfilled the task of a publisher wonderfully: listening attentively, empathetic, constructive, tenacious, patient, and last but not least, the icing on the cake – warmly caring. Many thanks to both of you for publishing such wonderful church music, with which you have given so much to so many music lovers and to posterity. 

I wish you all the very best for the choral-musical future of your publishing house.

The publication of the chorissimo! orange choral collection in 2008 marked the beginning of an intensive collaboration between the Landesakademie and Carus. A choral-pedagogical concept developed out of a close exchange of ideas, and it now covers the ages from Kindergarten to secondary level II, and with its approach, meets the standards of modern choral work in and out of school. In the chorissimo! series, Carus’s high editorial skills combine with the Akademie’s modern pedagogical expertise – an extremely fruitful combination, and a really enjoyable one too! 

Here’s to many more joint projects!

“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”, says Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, at the end of the famous Hollywood classic “Casablanca”. And the first collaboration between Carus-Verlag and the Department for Church Music in the Archdiocese of Freiburg in 1992 on the Freiburger Chorbuch was also the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But friendships need to be nurtured, and so the Department and the publisher have collaborated on eight further editions – and the end of this friendship is not yet within sight.

A collaboration lasting over three decades links me to Carus. I have been constantly delighted that the publisher has always been open to projects which are off the beaten track. So in 1990 I was able to publish a newly-discovered motet by one “Cugino Bach”, in 2002 Bach’s St John Passion in all its surviving versions, followed later by works from Bach’s music library and the W.F. Bach Complete Edition. The comprehensive documentation of the Bach family’s output is a masterpiece of publishing.