This new release is an artistic game of interrelationships and transference. With his brilliant technique, Daniel Muller-Schott reveals two new cello concertos from the early Classical triumvirate of composers. Daniel Müller-Schott ranks among the world’s best cellists of his generation and can be heard on all of the foremost international concert stages. He has made his mark by delighting audiences for two decades “a fearless player with technique to burn” (New York Times). In addition to performances of the great cello concertos, Daniel Müller-Schott has a special interest in discovering unknown works and extending the cello repertoire, e.g. with his own adaptations and through cooperation with contemporary composers.

J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio was written for the Christmas season of 1734, and although it incorporates music from earlier works it belongs firmly among his timeless large-scale compositions. The development of the oratorio, which was to become a new musical form in Protestant church services at that time, was stimulated by Bach’s compositions, particularly by the unusual form of his six-part Christmas Oratorio. From its famously joyful opening ‘Jauchzet frohlocket’ to the arrival of the Wise Men from the East, this work’s enduring popularity has long proven its status as a choral ‘evergreen.’ For the conductor Ralf Otto, flexibility, diversity and transparency of sound have always been essential to his work with choirs and orchestras. The conductor’s reputation is based on his gift for interpreting different musical styles, from the Renaissance through the music of today. This recording follows the April 2018 release of Bach’s St. John Passion with the Bach Choir and Orchestra of Mainz conducted by Ralf Otto. MusicWeb International wrote: “the Bachchor Mainz is a fine ensemble: it shows great flexibility in those turbae which are performed at a high speed, and produces a surprisingly transparent sound, also thanks to the good acoustic of the Christuskirche in Mainz.”

Finnish pianist-composer Olli Mustonen’s recordings of Preludes and Fugues by Bach and Shostakovich were released in 1999 and 2004. “Perhaps only an artist as innovative and convincing as Mustonen could have made it work as well as it does,” wrote BBC Music Magazine of the first volume. Of the second, Gramophone wrote that “one cannot deny either the brilliance or imagination of his playing”. Mustonen boldly alternates between the composers’ works: Andrew McGregor wrote for the BBC that “it becomes harder to hear where Bach ends and Shostakovich begins, and less important to separate them … I recommend it without hesitation or reservation.” Mustonen’s 1998 recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations “contains moments of absolutely spellbinding playing, with textures of wonderful clarity and a deeply imaginative approach to the music,” said BBC Music Magazine of an interpretation still considered iconoclastic today. It is reissued here along with a second disc of Beethoven featuring works including the E major sonata op. 109.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations is a contrapuntal tour de force, and one of the pinnacles in the history of the variation genre. Composed ‘to refresh the spirits of music-lovers’, it is a constantly fascinating and deeply enriching evocation of an entire musical universe. This arrangement with two ten-string guitars is a transcription of the original text including later corrections and additional musical indications made by the composer. The additional bass strings of these instruments provide an entire lower octave, giving access to the full range of musical timbres in this eternal masterpiece. Angela Kleger and Dimitar Ivanov founded Duo Synaphé in 2020 to present and record new repertoire for two ten-string guitars. These works were originally written for symphony orchestra, solo piano and other instruments. Having an extra four bass strings, the ten-string guitar offers the striking resonances of an extra octave below the normal guitar. This brings wider flexibility to voicing in arrangements, and retains the extended bass range of piano, harpsichord or other lower range instruments. The nature of these guitars takes classical masterpieces into unknown dimensions of musical expression and sound colors.