Ludwig Güttler + Virtuosi Saxoniae – JS Bach Orchestral Suites (2014)

Ludwig Güttler (born 13 June 1943) is an internationally known German virtuoso on the Baroque trumpet, the piccolo trumpet and the corno da caccia. As a conductor, he founded several ensembles including the chamber orchestra Virtuosi Saxoniae. His name is sometimes written in English as Ludwig Guttler.

He received a number of awards including Discovery of the Year in 1983, and Frankfurt’s Musikpreis for extraordinary achievements in 1989. He was a founding member of the Rheingau Musik Festival and has appeared regularly since the first season in 1988.

As head of the society of the Dresdner Frauenkirche, Ludwig Güttler promoted the reconstruction of this famous Baroque church, which was destroyed during World War II and was rebuilt in 1994–2004. In recognition of these contributions, Queen Elizabeth II appointed him Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in November 2007.

Güttler was born in 1943 in Sosa, in the Ore Mountain region of Saxony. He studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik – Mendelssohn-Akademie in Leipzig with Armin Männel. From 1965 to 1969 he played in the orchestra of the Handel Festival in Halle and from 1969 to 1980 with the Dresden Philharmonic. He has been teaching the trumpet at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden until 1990, and at the annual International Music Seminar in Weimar from 1980 to 1990.

Since the mid-1970s, Güttler has been mainly active as a soloist and later as a conductor, at home and abroad, devoted mainly to the trumpet literature of the 18th century, especially the high-pitched piccolo trumpet. He was also involved in the development of a modern brass instrument to play parts designated for the historic corno da caccia. The instrument was made by Friedbert Syhre in Leipzig.

Güttler is also musical director of the festival “Sandstein und Musik” (Sandstone and Music) in Saxon Switzerland, founded in 1983 and of the festival Musikwoche Hitzacker in Hitzacker. Güttler is a member of the Sächsische Akademie der Künste (Saxon Academy of Arts).

Güttler founded the Leipziger Bach-Collegium in 1976, the Blechbläserensemble Ludwig Güttler in 1978, and in 1985 the chamber orchestra Virtuosi Saxoniae.[3] The group of members of the Staatskapelle Dresden concentrates on performing music from the 18th century found in Dresden libraries, in the fields of opera, sacred music and chamber music.

He supported the Rheingau Musik Festival from the beginning in 1988, both as a performer and a curator. In 2011 he appeared with his Brass Ensemble.[5] In 2012, he conducted his orchestra Virtuosi Saxoniae in Eberbach Abbey in works by Bach, Handel, Johann Friedrich Fasch, Christoph Förster, Telemann and Mozart, as part of the series “Companions along the way”.

In 1983 he received a record prize of the Deutsche Phono-Akademie in Hamburg as “Discovery of the Year”. In 1988 he was the second recipient of the Georg-Philipp-Telemann-Preis of Magdeburg, in 1989 the Frankfurter Musikpreis. In both 1978 and 1985 he received the National Prize of East Germany, which he returned in 1989, asking that the money should be devoted to the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche.

After the German reunification, Ludwig Güttler became chairman of the society for promoting the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche Dresden and curator of the foundation Stiftung Frauenkirche. He regularly conducted “Wiederaufbaukonzerte” (concerts for the reconstruction).[9] For his involvement in the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche, he received several honours. President Horst Köhler awarded him in September 2007 the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Erich Iltgen awarded him the Sächsische Verfassungsmedaille on 26 May 2005. Queen Elizabeth II appointed him Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in November 2007 in recognition of his contributions to the reconstruction of the Frauenkirche and his significant contribution to the reconciliation of the two peoples by this project. (by wikipedia)

Can one ever tire of the dancing inspiration that animates these four portmanteau collections which have delighted both serious and casual listeners ever since Bach compiled them for use in social occasions as the 30-something Kapellmeister at the briefly enlightened court of Prince Leopold of Cöthen, exulting in the multifarious influences which he had absorbed and could place at the service of a compositional mind of unequalled intellectual brilliance yet always conscious of his music’s need to entertain, to give delight as well as accompany the sober thoughts of his congregations?

Not, at any rate, in these performances from a virtuoso German ensemble hailing from Bach’s own part of the world and masterminded by a superb trumpeter-turned-conductor who well understands the exuberant, public character of these suites, their occasional purposes, for all that in such moments as the famous Air from the G major Suite, No.3, they appear to take on a more confiding aspect, drawing the listener in before dispelling the tension with another jolly minuet or charming sarabande.

This generously filled CD presents the complete Orchestral Suites (Overtures) by J.S. Bach. Bach’s Suites count among his most popular and most frequently performed works, they are quintessential Bach: majestic, noble, tender and full of energy. They contain some of Bach’s evergreens: the Air from the 3rd Suite and the Badinerie from the 2nd Suite.

Played by the Virtuosi Saxoniae conducted by trumpeter-conductor Ludwig Güttler, modern instruments in Historically Informed Performance Practice, the best of both worlds. (press release)

Recordings: 1990-1992, Lukaskirche, Dresden/Germany

Personnel:
Joachim Bischof (cello)
Ludwig Güttler (trumpet)
Eckart Haupt (flute)
Friedemann Jähnig (viola)
Thomas Käppler (timpani)
Günter Klier (bassoon)
Manfred Krause (oboe)
Andreas Lorenz (oboe)
Heinz-Dieter Richter (violin)
Roland Rudolph (trumpet)
Mathias Schmutzler (trumpet)
Roland Straumer (violin)
Guido Titze (oboe)
Werner Zeibig (bass)

Tracklist:

Suite In C BWV 1066:
01. Ouverture 5.37
02. Courante 1.38
03. Gavotte I & II 2.27
04. Forlane 1.16
05. Menuet I & II 2.45
06. Bourrée I & II 2.25
07. Passepied I & II 3.02

Suite In B Minor BWV 1067:
08. Ouverture 6.25
09. Rondeau 1.39
10. Sarabande 2.52
11. Bourrée I & II 1.50
12. Polonaise I & II 2.59
13. Menuet 1.09
14. Badinerie 1.20

Suite In D BWV 1068:
15. Ouverture 6.35
16. Air 4.16
17. Gavotte I & II 3.11
18. Bourrée 1.15
19. Gigue 2.39

Suite In D BWV 1069:
20. Ouverture 6.49
21. Bourrée I & II 2.53
22. Gavotte 1.44
23. Menuet I & II 3.29
24. Réjouissance 2.17

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Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Into The Great Wide Open (1991)

Into the Great Wide Open is the eighth studio album by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, first released in 1991. The album was the band’s last with MCA Records. The album was the second Petty produced with Jeff Lynne after the success of Full Moon Fever.

The first single, “Learning to Fly”, became the band’s joint longest-running No. 1 single (along with “The Waiting” from 1981’s Hard Promises) on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, spending six weeks at the top spot. The second single, “Out in the Cold”, also made No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, albeit for two weeks.

The music video for the title song starred Johnny Depp, who had moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to seek rock stardom, along with Gabrielle Anwar, Faye Dunaway, Matt LeBlanc, Terence Trent D’Arby and Chynna Phillips.

The first single “Learning to Fly” was released prior to the album in June 1991, and was a big hit for Tom Petty. The second single, the title track, was released shortly after the album’s release and is also one of the band’s biggest hits. They were both top 10 singles on various charts. The third single “Out in the Cold” was a minor hit, although it did not achieve the commercial success of the first two. Throughout 1992, four other singles were released; “Makin’ Some Noise”, “All Or Nothin'” “Too Good To Be True” and “King’s Highway”.(by wikipedia)

Though he’s a major American rock & roll star, Tom Petty has yet to produce the kind of classic album artists of his caliber are supposed to make at least once in their careers. And while Into the Great Wide Open may not be it, it’s the closest he and his band the Heartbreakers have come in nearly 15 years.

You can hear it yourself. Petty’s first two albums — 1976’s Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and 1978’s You’re Gonna Get It! — have both just been re-released on Petty’s own Gone Gator record label, and still stand as his best work, effortlessly combining catchy melodies and unpretentiously raucous rock & roll. The follow-up, 1979’s Damn The Torpedoes, went triple platinum and made Petty & the Heartbreakers an arena attraction, but it also signaled a dulling of Petty’s grasp of the pop hook that — success or no — has simply made his music not as interesting as it used to be.

Until now, that is. Into the Great Wide Open is a surprising return to form. In some ways, credit for Petty’s renewal must go to Jeff Lynne, guiding Light in the Electric Light Orchestra, and, along with Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and the late Roy Orbison, a member of the Traveling Wilburys, the only so-called ”supergroup” in rock’s history to make decent records. Lynne, the Wilbury with the greatest ear for pop — he’s written more hit singles even than Harrison — produced Into The Great Wide Open, and his mark is all over it.

And while he also participated heavily in Tom Petty’s 1989 solo album, Full Moon Fever — producing and cowriting seven of its songs — something’s different this time. First, and most obviously, the songs, eight of which Petty cowrote with Lynne, are better. ”All or Nothing,” with its stinging, Lennonesque vocal and arrangement, resonates with much the same intensity as Petty’s 1978 album-rock radio staple ”Breakdown.” Other tracks almost as good include ”Too Good to Be True,” ”Kings Highway” and ”Two Gunslingers.” They’re all delightfully hook-filled, which may not sound like a big deal, but for Petty — whose hits, like his 1985 ”Don’t Come Around Here No More,” can be more memorable for their videos than their music — it’s what he has direly needed for far too long. And Petty himself, who at his worst has tended to bray rather than sing, has never sounded fresher or more pleased with what he’s singing (though with lyrics like ”rebel without a clue”…sorry, Tom, even Meat Loaf’s lyricist used that cliché, in an overwrought piece of pop fluff he wrote for Bonnie Tyler five years ago). Petty may not be a Springsteen or a Dylan — he may not have a Born to Run or Blood on the Tracks in him — but who does? I always thought that guys like this start out hot, get famous, get lazy, and then disappear. They’re not supposed to actually get better. (by Kevin Canty)

And on this album is one of the most important songs for me … this song helped me to go through a very difficult phase in my life:

Well, I started out
Down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down
As I crossed the hill
And the town lit up
And the world got still

I’m learning to fly
But I ain’t got wings
Coming down
Is the hardest thing

Well the good ol’ days
May not return
And the rocks might melt
And the sea may burn

Now some say life
Will beat you down
Yeah, break your heart
Steal your crown

So I started out
For God knows where
I guess I’ll know
When I get there

I’m learning to fly
Around the clouds
But what goes up
Must come down

Heyy!

And the titeltrack of this album is of course one of the finest songs ever written by Tom Petty (watch the great video-clip featuring Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway as his manager, and featured cameos by Terence Trent D’Arby, Chynna Phillips, and Matt LeBlanc.

All in all: This album is a must have … without any doubts … And you should listen to the great slide guitar, played by Mike Campbell.

Personnel:
Mike Campbell (guitar, slide-guitar, keyboards)
Howie Epstein (bass, background vocals)
Stan Lynch (drums, percussion)
Tom Petty (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion)
Benmont Tench (piano, accordion)
+
Jeff Lynne (guitar, bass, background vocals, piano, synthesizer, percussion, sound effects)
Roger McGuinn (background vocals  on 07.)
Richard Tandy (synthesizer on 04.)

Tracklist:
01. Learning to Fly (Petty/Lynne) 4.03
02. Kings Highway (Petty) 3.08
03. Into The Great Wide Open (Petty/Lynne)  3.43
04. Two Gunslingers (Petty) 3.09
05. The Dark Of The Sun (Petty/Lynne) 3.24
06. All Or Nothin’ (Petty/Campbell/Lynne) 4.07
07. All The Wrong Reasons (Petty/Lynne) 3.46
08. Too Good To Be True (Petty) 3.59
09. Out In The Cold (Petty/Lynne) 3.41
10. You And I Will Meet Again (Petty) 3.42
11. Makin Some Noise (Petty/Campbell/Lynne) 3.27
12. Built To Last (Petty/Lynne) 3.58

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And here´s one of the finest video clips in the history of Rock:

Eddie waited ’til he finished high school
He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo
He met a girl out there with a tattoo too
The future was wide open

They moved into a place they both could afford
He found a nightclub, he could work at the door
She had a guitar and she taught him some chords
The sky was the limit

Into the great wide open
Under them skies of blue
Out in the great wide open
A rebel without a clue

The papers said Ed always played from the heart
He got an agent and a roadie named Bart
They made a record and it went in the charts
The sky was the limit

His leather jacket had chains that would jingle
They both met movie stars, partied and mingled
Their A&R man said “I don’t hear a single”
The future was wide open

Into the great wide open
Under them skies of blue
Out in the great wide open
A rebel without a clue

Fresh Evidence – Volume No. 1/Issue No 1 (Rory Gallagher Fanzine) (1991)

I have a lot of fanzines in my archive … and here´s a very rare one … The first issue of the Rory Gallagher fanzine “Fresh Evidence”.

It was the “only official Rory Gallagher fanzine in the world”, as the publisher Noel Lackey wrote.

A fanzine (blend of fan and magazine or -zine) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest. (by wikipedia)

And this is the very first issue of “Fresh Evidence” (the titel comes from a Rory Gallagher album from 1990 (his  eleventh and last studio album).

As many fanzines, the print quality of this fanzine is more or less not so good … but that was not important in these days.

Much more important was, that Noel Lackey had contact with Rory Gallagher and his brother Donal and so he was able to present his “Question And Answers” column.

A real nice addition for every serious Rory Gallagher collection … a fanzine from a fan for the fans …

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Peter Seeger – Kinks – The Complete CD Catalogue (1991)

This is another rare item from my fanzine collection.

This is a German fanzine (so  the introduction is written in German !) and it´s a Kinks CD only discography (including bootlegs) from the year 1991.

The Kinks ? No introduction necessary !

I can´t find any informations about this discography in the web, so I guess, it´s a very, very rare collectors edition.

I met the author, Peter Seeger (yes, this is his real name, not a fake !) many times and he was a real music and record lover and, of course a real great Kinks fan. And a real nice guy !

Okay, enjoy this little crazy fanzine … brought to you by this little crazy blog.

Here some preview pics:

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