Soldanella Julius Berger

• Max Reger (1873 - 1916): Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 131c:
• 1 Reger: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 131c: I. Präludium 05:33
• 2 Reger: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 131c: II. Gavotte, Allegretto 04:40
• 3 Reger: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 131c: III. Largo 06:19
• 4 Reger: Suite No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 131c: IV. Gigue, Vivace 04:07
• Donald Francis Tovey (1875 - 1940): Sonate in D Major, Op. 30:
• 5 Tovey: Sonate in D Major, Op. 30: III. Passacaglia 20:02
• Adolf Busch (1891 - 1952): Suite, Op. 8a:
• 6 Busch: Suite, Op. 8a: I. Präludium, Andante 02:46
• 7 Busch: Suite, Op. 8a: II. Scherzo, Vivace assai 01:37
• 8 Busch: Suite, Op. 8a: III. Romanze, Andante 02:55
• 9 Busch: Suite, Op. 8a: IV. Tarantelle 03:12
• Präludium and Fuge in D Minor, Op. 8b:
• 10 Busch: Präludium and Fuge in D Minor, Op. 8b: I. Präludium 02:49
• 11 Busch: Präludium and Fuge in D Minor, Op. 8b: II. Fuge 01:56
• Walter Courvoisier (1875 - 1931): Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2:
• 12 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: I. Appassionato 03:13
• 13 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: II. Allemande 03:39
• 14 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: III. Courante 02:06
• 15 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: IV. Sarabande 03:56
• 16 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: V. Bourrée 02:10
• 17 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: VI. Menuetto I und II 04:24
• 18 Courvoisier: Suite in H Minor, Op. 32 No. 2: VII. Gigue 02:36
• Total Runtime 01:18:00

Info for Soldanella

When Pablo Casals rediscovered the cello suites of Bach at the beginning of the 20th century, the novel thing about it was that he played them "senza basso", i.e. without piano accompaniment. In a time of music-historical over-maturity and experimentation, renowned composers soon came up with their own attempts, among them most famously Max Reger's "Solo Suites" and Kodály's "Solo Sonata", both written in 1915. The cellist Julius Berger has made amazing discoveries especially in this early history of new cello solo music and presents them here as a performer in a most lively way. In the accompanying booklet, he enriches the production by adding exciting and witty stories worth knowing about the composers recorded here and their works. The introduction and transition to the new discoveries is made with the second of Reger's three suites, which Julius Berger comments on in an informative and very personal way. Adolf Busch, on the one hand an eminent musician of the best German (emigrant) tradition, a world-famous violinist, and on the other hand a composer who is at the same time a highly experienced instrumentalist, wrote a Suite dedicated to his cellist brother Hermann in 1914, which is beyond neo-baroque models as regards the character of its movements, as well as a "Prelude and Fugue" from 1922, such as often composed by Bach, but not for cello. The British composer and musicologist Sir Donald Francis Tovey was a friend of the Busch brothers and admired as a genius by Casals. His expansive "Passacaglia" reminiscent of Bach's "Ciaconna" is admirably mastered with regard to its large-scale form and dates from 1910. The program is completed by a suite that makes reference to baroque movement types by Swiss composer and Munich composition teacher Walter Courvoisier from 1921, which Julius Berger premiered as recently as 1 October 2022.

Julius Berger, cello

Julius Berger
For more than 40 years it is hardly to imagine the music scene without the cellist from Augsburg. Not just because he is a splendid performer that has been titled “the Prophet of cello” (W.-E.v.Lewinsky) by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after his second recording of Bachs’ Cello-Suites: Julius Berger enriched the music world in diverse ways, as a performer, a teacher, an explorer and a thinker that doesn’t like beaten paths.

Bergers’ formative teachers were Fritz Kiskalt (Munich, Germany), Antonio Janigro (Salzburg, Austria), of whom he was the assistant for many years, and Zara Nelsova (Cincinnati, USA) . He had close contact with Mstislav Rostropovich, where he took studies initially and with whom he had numerous concert afterwards.

Important impulses for Berger’s artistic life came from collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, Olivier Messiaen, Sofia Gubaidulina and Gidon Kremer, who invited him numerous times to the Kammermusikfestival at Lockenhaus (Austria).

Julius Berger is requested as a solist and an instrumentalist wordwide, recorded various CDs and educates young talents. A lot of his former students are already acting as professors or solo-cellists in well-known orchestras, e.g. the Leipziger Gewandhausorchester.

That Julius Berger does not make a difference between the historical and the contemporary, but rather, in the sense of his teacher and friend Mstislav Rostropovich seeks the contact to living composers and promotes the emergence of new works by assignments and premieres certainly belongs to his great merits. Recent examples include works by Sofia Gubaidulina, Franghiz Ali-Zhadeh, Adriana Hölszky, Manuela Kerer, Krzysztof Meyer, Wilhelm Killmayer, Johannes X. Schachtner, Markus Schmitt, Giovanni Bonato, Hong Jun Seo, and others. In 2014 Julius Berger, together with his wife Hyun-Jung, they have premiered “Two Paths” by Sofia Gubaidulina for two violoncellos and orchestras at the “Seoul International Festival”. The work was performed as a European premiere at the Beethovenfest Bonn 2015.

Julius Berger also made an important contribution to the literature of his instrument by rediscovering and recording the works of Luigi Boccherini and Leonardo Leo as well as the oldest literature for violincello solo by Gabrielli and degli Antonii. He is at the same time editor of most of the works in exemplary Urtext editions.

Recently Julius Berger devoted himself mainly to researching the intellectual background of large standard works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and others. In his series “From the Idea to the Work” at the University of Augsburg, which he initiated, he develops language, sound, and historical references.

For many years, Julius Berger has been the artistic director of the festivals in Eckelshausen (Germany) and Asiago (Italy) and President of the International Instrumental Competition Markneukirchen (Germany).

In 2009, he was appointed a full member of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz.

Julius Berger is looking for relaxation in the mountains. He is a passionate photographer and author of poems.

Booklet for Soldanella