Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
The Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, was among the first period-instrument orchestras founded in the former East Germany, and it remains a leader in the field today. The group has specialized in the music of Bach and other composers of the German Baroque but has also performed and recorded Italian and French music, both instrumental and operatic.
The Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin ("Berlin Academy of Early Music") arose in 1982 in what was then East Berlin. Its members were young players from Berlin and Leipzig who had become interested in the burgeoning historical performance scene in the West and sought to emulate it by experimenting with old instruments. After a prolonged rehearsal period, the group made its debut in 1984 at Berlin's Schauspielhaus theater. Organized as a cooperative, it stood partially outside East Germany's cumbersome state musical bureaucracy, and it soon found bookings beyond Berlin at such events as the Handel Festival in the city of Halle. The following year, the group made its recording debut with an album of music by Telemann, Geminiani, and Blavet; it was released simultaneously on the East German state label Eterna and on West Germany's Capriccio label. After German reunification, the group's fame became international, and its performances and recordings were marked by collaborations with such international stars as keyboardist Ton Koopman, soprano Cecilia Bartoli, and conductor René Jacobs. The group has appeared on tour at Carnegie Hall in New York, and the orchestra earned a Grammy Award in 2002 when it backed Bartoli on an album of arias by Christoph Willibald Gluck. At home, the orchestra, often using the acronym Akamus, is a major part of Berlin's cultural life, presenting some 100 concerts a year. The group varies in size but has a core membership of about 30 players.
Another by-product of German reunification was a rapid expansion in the orchestra's recording career. The Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, recorded for Berlin Classics and Capriccio in the early '90s and was then signed to the Harmonia Mundi label in 1994, releasing a recording of Bach's secular cantatas relating the story of Phoebus und Pan, with Jacobs as conductor, in 1996. That recording, like several others by the group, was made with Berlin's RIAS Kammerchor. In 2014, the Akademie established its own concert series at the Prinztheater in Munich. The orchestra has recorded more than 50 albums for Harmonia Mundi, including a set of Bach violin concertos with violinist Isabelle Faust in 2019. The Akademie für Alte Musik, Berlin, marked its 40th year in 2022 with a flurry of activity that included performances of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in several German cities, Telemann's rare opera Pimpinone in Magdeburg, and tours with violist Antoine Tamestit and Jacobs. That year, the Akademie planned to release an all-Telemann album with Tamestit; a new recording of Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, with Jacobs; a recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4, Op. 60, and Symphony No. 8, Op. 93; and an 11-disc set, compiling the group's best recordings of the Bach family over its long career.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Bach: Violin Concerto, BWV 1052 & Double Concertos
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1/11/2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Brandenburgische Konzerte (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1/01/2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach : Die Kunst der Fuge (L'Art de la fugue) (Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin)
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Chamber Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 11/01/2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Handel: Concerti grossi, Op. 3
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Georg Kallweit
Concertos - Released by PentaTone on 14/08/2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Soli Deo Gloria
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concerto Köln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Peter Dijkstra
Classical - Released by BR-Klassik on 7/10/2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Violin Concertos
Isabelle Faust, Bernhard Forck, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Concertos - Released by harmonia mundi on 15/03/2019
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Paul Wranitzky: Symphonies
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by deutsche harmonia mundi on 15/04/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 8 - Méhul: Symphony No. 1 - Cherubini: Lodoïska Overture
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bernhard Forck
Symphonies - Released by harmonia mundi on 9/09/2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
J. S. Bach: The Motets
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Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by EuroArts Music International on 17/11/2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (Anna Prohaska - Bernarda Fink - Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin - Bernhard Forck)
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Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 18/11/2010
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Adagios & Fugues
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 7/04/2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas with Bach
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Philippe Herreweghe, Isabelle Faust
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 10/12/2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Messiah
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Doyle Justin, RIAS-Kammerchor Berlin
Sacred Oratorios - Released by PENTATONE on 16/10/2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ino & Late Works
Christina Landshamer, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bernhard Forck
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 8/03/2024
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Telemann: Orchestral Suites
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1/01/1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Georg Friedrich Händel : Agrippina
René Jacobs, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Full Operas - Released by harmonia mundi on 29/09/2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach : Dialogkantaten, BWV 32, 49 & 57
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Raphael Alpermann, Michael Volle, Sophie Karthäuser, Members of RIAS Kammerchor
Cantatas (sacred) - Released by harmonia mundi on 25/05/2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Solo Cantatas for Bass
Raphael Alpermann, Michael Volle, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Unknown Artist
Classical - Released by Accentus Music on 1/09/2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
W.F. Bach: Symphonies & Concertos
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1/01/2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Platti: Concerti grossi after Corelli
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 29/07/2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo