Felix Klieser & Wiener Concert-Verein - A Golden Christmas (2023)

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Felix Klieser & Wiener Concert-Verein - A Golden Christmas (2023)

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Horn player Felix Klieser loves snow and the freezing cold, even if he doesn't get much of it at home in Hanover. Ever since he was a child, winter has been his favorite season of the year - and not just for climatic reasons: "Even today, I'm an absolute Christmas fan and can't imagine anything better than coming back from a walk in the snow to a warm house and slowly warming up again with a cup of hot chocolate. Little lights, trays full of cookies, a visit to the Christmas market - this time is definitely my highlight of the year!" says the horn player enthusiastically.

Consequently, the desire to record an album of Christmas music had existed for many years. He often financed his studies with performances at the Christmas Oratorio. The Advent season is always a busy time for brass players. Freely after Bach: "Sound ye timpani, sound ye horns!" But again and again the idea was postponed, other recordings came along the way. It actually took 10 years with six published albums until he could fulfill this wish. In the meantime, Felix Klieser has built up an international career and has once again made the horn sound more often as a soloist instrument on the big stages. It is time to fulfill a wish, Christmas is also known for that: And so the color of the horn also flows into the album title "A Golden Christmas" not entirely by chance.

For his new album, which like its predecessors will be released by Berlin Classics, Felix Klieser has chosen enchantingly beautiful melodies. Among them the heartfelt petition "Jesu, komm in meine Seele", an aria from the cantata "Machet die Tore weit" by Telemann, the old Advent carol "Maria durch ein Dornwald ging" and the "Silent Night" that crowns every Christmas Eve. Alongside carols such as "Adeste Fideles" or the yearning "Es kommt ein Schiff geladen," there are lively ones such as the classic "Tochter Zion," a melody from Handel's oratorio "Judas Maccabaeus," or the old English carol "Deck the Halls."

The composers range from the North German Baroque master Dieterich Buxtehude to the British John Rutter, born in 1945. The album thus covers a wide range and includes different epochs and styles. Felix Klieser receives musical support from the first-class Wiener Concert-Verein. Founded in 1987 by members of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the chamber orchestra upholds the tradition of Viennese classical music on the one hand and cultivates contemporary repertoire on the other. It is the perfect line-up.

For the arrangement of the works, the choice fell on the experienced arranger Wolfgang Renz, with whom Felix Klieser has already collaborated for his album "Beyond Words". As was already the case with J.S. Bach, the so-called "parody procedure" is used to transform once composed works into completely new pieces and contexts. Therefore, Bach's Christmas Oratorio can not be missing on this album and is represented with two arias on the new album: "Schließe mein Herz dies selige Wunder" and "Grosser Herr und starker König".

Felix Klieser manages to transcribe baroque arias, choral works and songs so sensitively onto the horn that his instrument literally sings the melodies and its multi-layered timbres effectively recreate the human voice. He was already able to demonstrate this masterfully on his aria album "Beyond Words". He trusts uncompromisingly in the universal language of music and its effect. "The idea is, after all, that everyone can develop their own ideas while listening, ideas that they connect with the music," says Felix Kieser. "That's what's so exciting about it: there is no 'right and wrong.' Everyone associates something different with the music." Without knowing the text or symbolism, one can simply enjoy this music and feel a sense of security at the swaying 12/8 time of the aria "He shall feed his flock" from the oratorio "The Messiah" by Handel or the "Evening Blessing" from the opera "Hansel and Gretel" by Humperdick.

"A Golden Christmas" should act like a light in dark times and put us in a festive mood. This was no easy task, because the recordings were made in the height of summer in Vienna, which made it almost impossible to imagine snowy winter landscapes, candles and open fires. But the musicians knew how to help themselves: "We brought along some Christmas decorations, unpacked some cookies and off we went," Felix Klieser reports with a grin, thus providing the same listening instructions for this album.