Spanning her debut in the 1890s to the esoteric vision of her later years, this world premiere recording features a superb line-up of rising Danish singers, breathing life into Tekla Griebel Wandall's (1869-1953) vivid songs. From the macabre irony of a -Heinrich Heine setting to the profound emotional journey of J.P. Jacobsen's poetry, Wandall grapples with seemingly irreconcilable opposites while toying with both form and feeling.

The Simply Mozart adventure, dedicated to his last three symphonies, comes to an end with this third volume and the 39th symphony. The programme also includes the overture to Cosi fan tutte ("a statement of the opera in miniature", according to Julien Chauvin) and the Sinfonia concertante for violin and viola. Composed one year after Mozart's second trip to Paris, the Sinfonia concertante was directly inspired by the Parisian practice of having several soloists enter into dialogue with the orchestra; this was very much in vogue at the end of the 18th century. "Mozart left his mark on us and on our hearts with it's second movement, one of the most poignant that he was ever to write," says Julien Chauvin; here his violin dialogues happily with the viola of Amihai Grosz, who has already made two recordings for Alpha Classics (ALPHA634 & 1013).

Among the large number of passions that Telemann wrote, the St. Luke Passion of 1744 occupies an important place due to it's special interpretation of the text.

This recording is dedicated to two recent concertos by Kalevi Aho, one of Finland's foremost contemporary composers. The author of a body of work as important as it is varied, Aho enjoys collaborating with exceptional soloists, for whom he composes works that highlight their musical qualities, inventiveness and personality. The Concerto for Alto Flute and Strings features an instrument with a soft tone, well suited as a soloist with a small orchestra of strings alone. The work is in six movements played without interruption, and the soloist, Sharon Bezaly, sometimes switches to the bass flute, which brings a mystical feel to the music. The St Michel Strings and their conductor, Erkki Lasonpalo, contribute to the mysterious atmosphere in which lyrical and dramatic episodes abound. The Double Concerto for Viola, Percussion and Orchestra, entitled 'Moonlight Concerto', was composed at the initiative of a Berlin-based musician couple, violist Hiyoli Togawa and percussionist Alexej Gerassimez. Here we are immersed in a Japanese atmosphere that reveals echoes of the 1,000-year-old tradition of ritualistic gagaku music. In this work, the percussionist plays instruments that are not usually heard in orchestral concerts, such as the moon gong, the waterphone, a hang drum and nine Thai gongs. The Lahti Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Anja Bihlmaier, provides the rich orchestral commentary.

The most important musical setting of the Nativity before Johann Sebastian Bach

Niels Rosing-Schow (b. 1954) crafts chamber music of sensual, organic allure, rich with contrast and sonic elegance. This album unveils four works - from the vibrant 'Dance and Signs in the Air' to the soulful 'Respiro ergo sum' - crowned by his exquisite take on Debussy's 'Six epigraphes antiques'. Through kinetic archetypes and seamless musical arcs, Rosing-Schow shapes an immediate, evocative voice, timeless yet fresh, speaking vividly on music's own terms.

This album comprises seven solo, chamber, and orchestral pieces composed over almost forty years. It does not include any compositions for Japanese instruments or for early instruments which are well-represented in other albums by David Loeb. All of the pieces were written specifically for the performers who have played them here.

Hardly any work by a great composer has undergone as many arrangements as Richard Wagner's music dramas. Just a few years ago, Cord Garben discovered the "50 Symphonic Movements from Richard Wagner's Music Dramas" in an antiquarian bookshop. They were created by the Hamburg lawyer, composer, and patron Hermann Behn (1859-1927) between 1914 and 1917. While Behn used the "conventional" method in his arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 for two pianos, four hands (Musicaphon M56915)-meaning nothing more than distributing the relevant material of the orchestral score in a way that is easily playable for both pianists-he took a completely different approach with Wagner's dramas. In 1914, he had already achieved his signature symphonic sound on the pianos in his arrangement of the first fragments of the "Ring of the Nibelung." To this end, he skillfully employed doubling of chord sequences and absurdly wide fingerings in the left hand, which can only be reproduced in a "broken" style, i.e., by quickly plucking the notes from bottom to top. This inevitably results in deliberate inaccuracies in the harmony, which-with sufficient pedal use-lead to a previously unheard richness of sound. Christiane Behn (great-grandniece of Hermann Behn) and Cord Garben play Behn's arrangements (in excerpts) on two 1912 Steinways that once belonged to Hermann Behn's cousin Rafael Behn and are now in Christiane Behn's possession. Behn himself once played his arrangements on these instruments (together with his friend Gustav Mahler, among others, as well as with Rafael Behn).

This is an album largely consisting of solo violin works by Paganini, but also with two Paganini works for violin and piano. Argentine violinist Tomas Cotik, who has made a number of recordings for Centaur, is the ideal performer for these works.

This recording of pieces by Johannes Martin Doemming is a broad cross-section of his output. Regarding the instrumental concerti, the main focus is on the winds: flutes and oboe or oboe d'amore. Stylistically, we find Doemming's pieces ranging from Buxtehude (cantata) over the high baroque to the time of sensitivity, almost in the style of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach

This is already the third recording by a highly unusual ensemble. Perhaps the only ensemble in the world featuring guitar and harp. A truly distinctive sound combination. Both artists are also represented on Musicaphon with solo recordings; Maximilian Mangold now has well over ten. And both have a passion for contemporary music. All the works on this CD were composed specifically for them.

Pianist and composer Eduard Kiprsky, a native of St. Petersburg and winner of countless international composition awards, has long been involved with writing song cycles. On this album, titled "Friedensgebet" (Prayer for Peace), mezzo-soprano Margarita Gritskova-a beloved ensemble member of the Vienna State Opera-and Alexander Mikhailov, tenor at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, join Kiprsky at the piano to perform a selection of his songs. These settings of poems by Heinrich Heine, Eduard Morike, Hermann Hesse, Joseph von Eichendorff, and Clemens Brentano, among others, explore doubt, loss, and suffering, yet also love, hope, and resilience. Framing the vocal works are two instrumental pieces: the Arioso for Piano, Violin, and Cello and the award-winning "Friedensgebet" String Quartet, which lends the album it's title.

Prof. Erich Beurmann donated 70 instruments to the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts. Among them are a large number of harpsichords, clavichords, and fortepianos: from an Italian harpsichord dating from 1540 to a Steinway concert grand piano from 1871. A significant portion of these instruments are kept playable so that the music of various eras can be reproduced on the instruments of the time. Susanne Von Laun regularly plays instruments from this collection in concerts and on guided tours. The artist, who was awarded the Muzio Clementi Award in 2005, selected five instruments for this CD (a square piano from 1777, three fortepianos from 1795 to 1820, and a Broadwood grand piano from 1841), which can now be heard on CD for the first time.

Robert Oboussier was born in Antwerp and spent much of his youth in Germany. As a staunch opponent of National Socialism he emigrated to Zurich in 1939 where he held a number of important musical positions. However, the circumstances of his death in 1957 served to plunge his name into immediate obscurity and only now is his music being revived. This selection of mostly world premiere recordings demonstrates his personal use of twelve-tone rows, abrupt contrasts and a fondness for fantasia patterns. Oboussier's radical piano miniatures, 25 Abreviations, are heard here in their original versions and in excerpts arranged for plucked string ensemble by Christian Wernicke.

Internationally celebrated as both a soloist and conductor, Florian Krumpock has more than proven his outstanding capability in the international concert scene. "Forget Lang Lang and Arcadi Volodos. There are highly virtuoso keyboard tigers in Austria too", was the verdict of the daily newspaper "Die Presse" on the pianist's solo debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus. On this album, Florian Krumpock presents two of Robert Schumann's seminal works Fantasiestucke, Op. 12 and Symphonic etudes, Op. 13 both deeply intertwined with his great love and future wife, Clara Wieck. The album's title, "Between Eusebius and Florestan", alludes to the alter egos Schumann frequently invoked during this period: opposing personas that profoundly influenced his work as both a music critic and a composer. This recording of the Symphonic etudes includes five posthumously published variations, with the finale drawn from Schumann's 1852 revised version.

Why should things be more fair in musical history than elsewhere? Here, too, the wall that stands between fame and obscurity is very thin and, moreover, rather arbitrarily erected. But it can be unsurmountably high. Coincidences, small vicissitudes of life can decide between success and failure in the eyes of posterity. The composers whose works we find on this recording are prime examples of this. On the one hand, George Frideric Handel, the cosmopolitan, widely known composer, chapel master to His Majesty, the King of England, and director of the Royal Academy of Music, who hardly needs any further introduction, and, on the other hand, Johann Sigismund Weiss. Who? The name Weiss only brings to mind Sylvius Leopold, the famous lutenist at the Dresden court, acquainted with Bach - this was the older brother of our Weiss. He, too, was a professional musician, and, as his works show, one who was entirely on a par with his brother, indeed even with Handel - but he never became famous. He was born ca. 1690 in Breslau, and died in Mannheim in 1737. We hardly know anything about his life and work. From 1708 to 1718, he was lutenist of the Electoral Palatinate court chapel in Dusseldorf, subsequently - until 1723 - he held the same position in Mannheim. There he advanced to court Kapellmeister. But his path crossed that of Handel.

The Cappella musicale di Santa Maria in Campitelli, conducted by Maestro Vincenzo Di Betta, who has already been responsible for significant recording revivals such as Orazio Benevoli's "Missa in angustia pestilenti�" (TC600201), Bonaventura Rubino's "Messa de' Morti" (TC601803), and Francesco Giovannini's "Messa � Quattro" (TC700703), is now engaged in this new and notably interesting musical production. This rediscovery focuses on two sacred oratorios from the seventeenth century by two authors active in the Neapolitan orbit: Francesco Nicol� de Rossi, a priest of Apulian origin, and Cristoforo Caresana, of Venetian origin and formerly the organist of St. Mark's Basilica. The two works - performed with the ensemble's customary expertise - are interspersed with an instrumental battle piece by Andrea Falconieri, composed in the spirit of that Baroque theatricality which is the main ingredient of these works and of the sacred musical masterpieces of the seventeenth century.

Women were not always allowed to compose - often due to restrictions imposed by their families or for social reasons. Ursula Erhart-Schwertmann, cello, and Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth, piano, illustrate on this album by the title "lost & found" the compositional activity of women in that era, in which composing for women was increasingly recognized. Their lists of works contain mainly short chamber music pieces, less often large-scale orchestral works. This selection of works also takes this into account and offers a compilation of character pieces from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Female composers from France, Great Britain, Denmark and north-eastern Europe like Mel Bonis, Amy Beach, Ethel Barns, Hilda Sehested or Marie Clemence de Grandval, among others, are given a voice and document the musical range of this genre.

Chamber music by the Graun brothers in various ensembles for woodwind and strings. A highly varied album that provides a good insight into the sophisticated entertainment music of the High Baroque period.

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, composed over an extended period and in collaboration with it's dedicatee Ferdinand David, was an instant success at it's premiere. The concerto's glorious melodic invention and innovative character have made it one of the most beloved works in the classical canon. Dramatic in mood and troubled in it's history, Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto is regarded by soloist Albrecht Menzel as revealing the composer's inner world, from the deepest anguish to the heights of exhilaration.