“When it comes to serving music through pianistic brilliance…tone and interpretive intelligence, then Michael Korstick is in his element.” (FonoForum) Among critics and informed citizens of the piano world, this Köln native enjoys considerable renown as one of Germany’s leading pianists. Mr. Korstick has proven to be an individual interpreter, creating new benchmark recordings, whether in works of unknown composers or the standard literature, He won the 2005 Echo-Klassik prize in the category Solo Recording of the Year for this rerelease of Schubert’s B flat major Sonata, D960.

Internationally acclaimed cellist Benedict Kloeckner and pianist Yo Kosuge join forces for a compelling collaboration. Both artists bring extensive experience from major festivals and leading orchestras, along with many years of chamber-music and recital performances. For this album, they selected popular works and arrangements as follows: Schubert - Arpeggione Sonata; Lullaby; Nacht und Träume (Night and Dreams, arr. Kloeckner) / Mendelssohn - Sonata in D major; On Wings of Song (arr. Popper); Song Without Words (Op. 109).

Pianist Mathieu Gaudet presents the final instalment of his Complete Schubert Sonatas and Major Piano Works recording series. This final volume, The Testament, showcases the very last Sonata by Schubert in B flat major D. 960, a work with a unique sound environment, at once lush but modest, passionate but patient, opening a door to a world of extreme sensitivity. Also on this album is the Sonata in E minor D. 566, written by a romantic 20 year-old man, full of fun ideas and strokes of genius.

Today, it is a beacon in the world of music: a cappella choir culture at the highest technical and musical level. Clytus Gottwald had a decisive influence on this choir culture with his work, arranging solo songs for polyphonic choirs and thus enabling new, breathtaking sound experiences. In 2025, Gottwald would have turned 100 years old. The Stuttgart Chamber Choir, conducted by Frieder Bernius, has taken this anniversary as an opportunity to honor Gottwald's art with a special program. From Franz Schubert's Nacht und Träume (Night and Dreams) to Die Könige (The Kings) by Peter Cornelius to Solveig's Song by Edvard Grieg, the range of songs that Gottwald transformed into a cappella choral sound experiences through his transcriptions is vast. A vocal delight, not only in the anniversary year!

Pianist Lukas Geniusas pays tribute to the fantasy, a form synonymous with freedom, dear to the Romantics. Schubert sets the figure of the wanderer to music in his Lied Der Wanderer, which, a few years later, would give rise to a large-scale instrumental work: the Fantasy in C major, D. 760 (1822), later known as the "Wanderer" Fantasy. It's four-part structure could be that of a four-movement sonata cycle, but these sections follow one another without interruption in a continuous process, like an uninterrupted journey. Fascinated by this work, Liszt wrote his transcription for piano and orchestra in 1851, two years before his famous Sonata in B minor, which is also monothematic and unfolds as a single, vast movement. More in line with the classicists, Tchaikovsky cultivates virtuosity and instrumental brilliance in his Concert Fantasy of 1884. With the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, conducted by Modestas Pitrenas, Geniusas offers a rare (if not unprecedented) pairing of these two fantasies, separated by just over six decades.

This album presents a new arrangement of Franz Schubert's song cycle Die schone Mullerin, performed by baritone Roderick Williams with the Carducci Quartet. Originally composed in 1823 for voice and piano, the cycle sets poems by Wilhelm Muller that trace the emotional journey of a young miller through hope, love, jealousy and despair. In this recording, the piano part is reimagined for string quartet, drawing out the implied instrumental textures in Schubert's writing while preserving the narrative flow of the songs. The arrangement offers a fresh perspective on the work's structure and atmosphere, highlighting it's central Romantic themes of nature, longing and reflection.

Schone Welt, wo bist du? These words by Friedrich Schiller are the first of this new project, an exploration of existence, wandering and mourning. Coline Dutilleul has conceived a programme in which keyboard works by Johann Sebastian Bach and Lieder by Franz Schubert echo themes of melancholy and death: inner states that music makes perceptible through tempo, texture and harmony. These works trace a journey marked by absence and resilience in which agitation, renunciation and appeasement follow one another like the stages of mourning.

... So what, then, did Winterreise mean to us? At the risk of stating the obvious: it was a journey - albeit a journey with no real destination. The depth of this Everest-like score offered new insights and fresh layers with every reading. Consequently, there was never - and still isn't, despite years of preparation and live performances - a real sense of completion, no point at which we could say we were "finished" studying each lied. And perhaps the Wanderer's journey is also without destination. A physical trek through a cold and indifferent, if not openly hostile, nature, it is also a psychological path through the difficult phases of processing loss - a process that, in truth, never completes. The traveler clings to the pain inflicted by a society that rejected him and continues to reject him, like the barking dogs announcing his passing, finding refuge only in the suffering of memory and in each weary step through the snow

Pocket-sized drama In essence, the texts by Heine featured in this compilation are taken from his Book of Songs. Behind each title lies a unique personal drama, sometimes in an oriental-style setting (Rubinstein's Der Asra) and occasionally in the finest Rhine Romantic tradition (Clara Schumann's Lorelei). They recount medieval episodes, transporting us into fantastical fairy-tale worlds, providing an escape from everyday life into an imaginary scenario. This is the order of the day, just as it was back then, because, perhaps especially in our often unromantic times, it is not such a bad idea to have someone sing you a song.

The debut album of violinist Hannah Cho, born in South Korea and member of the Vienna Philharmonic, is shaped by the idea of paying tribute to her adopted home of Vienna through sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms-composers who are closely associated with this city. Although their lifespans (born in 1756 in Salzburg, in 1797 in Vienna-Himmelpfortgrund, and in 1833 in Hamburg, respectively) by a thin margin don't overlap, they can be described as bearers of a relay baton, their connection found in the tradition of Viennese Classicism. Together with pianist Srebra Gelleva, Hannah Cho presents Sonata No. 21 in E minor, K. 304/300c by W. A. Mozart, Sonata in A major, Op. Posth. 162, D 574 by Franz Schubert, and Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 by Johannes Brahms. This selection offers a cross-section of the historical development of the violin sonata genre, which experiences an early flourishing with Mozart, was almost naturally incorporated into Schubert's oeuvre, and finds a peak of maturity in the Romantic era with Brahms.

Dora Deliyska's programs are frequently dedicated to a specific theme that links the individual pieces together. At first glance, this does not appear to be the case with the present CD. Yet it would not be Dora Deliyska if there were not, in fact, a-perhaps mysterious-connection between the pieces performed. - Christian Kuhn