Issue link: http://saihq.uberflip.com/i/1534578
18 Spring 2025 • sai-national.org 18 Spring 2025 • sai-national.org A Wld of Music By Jayne I. Hanlin For his 85th birthday in 2020, Leopold Hager funded a set of CDs entitled Retrospektive Leopold Hager. An English translation of Hager's own description in the German liner notes gives details: What a privileged existence it is to live a life for music, in music, and with music! For this I am grateful. And for friends and other interested parties, it seems an appropriate time to take a quick glance back. Along with the joy of some successful concerts and recordings, which also brings back memories of encounters and episodes with individual artists and orchestras, there are also grounds for self-critique, as some of the things we have grown fond of over the course of 50 years have now become outdated. It was important to me to show the stylistic range of my work, though I excluded Haydn and Schumann (due to a lack of good recordings) and Brahms and Mahler (because there are so many good conductors for their works). I am pleased that people can enjoy my fourfold performance as organist, pianist, composer, and conductor. The six CDs include Hager in all four roles. Of special note are the first three: organ soloist in Handel's Organ Concerto in F Major, Op. 4, No. 4 during which he conducts from the organ; piano soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto in A Major, K. 414; and a performance of his own composition 2. Psalm for Baritone, Choir, and Orchestra. All three performances are with the RTL-Symphony Orchestra Luxembourg. These recordings range from four decades between 1984 and 2015. As maestro, he conducts orchestral and operatic works by Beethoven, Maestro Leopold Hager A Wld of Music