We're worried by it, stressed out from it, frightened of it - and yet we're fascinated by it. Chaos has always been perceived as a threat, but also as the foundation of life. Various creation stories explain how the world arose out of disorder, out of "mayhem". In like manner, it is anarchic spirits in particular that are credited with the ability to create masterpieces of creative art. This conception was perhaps most neatly expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche: "You must have chaos within you, if you are to give birth to a dancing star." The present album is made up of works which, if you like, harbour the sound of chaos. Originally written for a wide variety of instruments, these pieces are arranged here for string quartet and are connected by improvised interludes - linking passages for which the Hungarian composer Samu Gryllus has provided the basis. The Chaos String Quartet emerged from the iconic violist joke: "Well-established, world-famous string quartet looking for a new first violin, second violin... and cellist." That's exactly how it happened. On Cornwall's rugged coast, during a Prussia Cove masterclass, after an illuminating lesson, a sight-reading session, and a candlelit dinner, Sara invited Susanne to form a quartet. After that first conversation, it took some time to find two other brave musicians, both beyond their mid-twenties, who were willing to embark on the exciting, sometimes complex, and risky adventure that is a string quartet. Fortunately, Eszter and Bas joined soon after, with great enthusiasm. As usual, naming proved a challenge. Some suggested using the first violinist's surname; others, a Greek god. A few warned, "Don't start with A - there are too many." Then came a provocative idea: why not call it Chaos? Furthermore, the quartet enjoys inspiring the next generation, sharing it's experience as Young Artists in Residence at Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts, cheekily sparking a little chaos among the artists of tomorrow. Their recognition as BBC New Generation Artists (2023-2025) and regular appearances at venues like Wigmore Hall, Musikverein, and Concertgebouw illuminate a journey where unpredictability becomes inspiration-reminding us that from the origins of chaos can emerge music of unique order and profound beauty.

The first time Margarita Hohenrieder heard the Finnish pianist Antti Siirala, she was a member of the jury for the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in May 1997. Many years later, Antti Siirala was appointed Professor for Piano at the University of Music and Theatre Munich - a happy coincidence that gave both the opportunity to make music together. The very first time they played together, we sensed a special musical relationship: a similar ideal of sound and a very deliberate way of listening to one another. Embarking with a fellow-musician on an artistic journey - such as making Mozart sound convincing on modern instruments, searching for the right tempo, rhythm, vivid phrasing, thrilling dynamics - is a highly creative process and certainly an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As an exciting contrast to their Mozart interpretations, they offer the South American sounds and rhythms of the bandoneon and the typically wistful melodies of the tango Cristian en el Cafe Tortoni Buenos Aires by Francoise Choveaux - a quite different but equally stimulating challenge. Hohenrieder also was introduced to the great bandoneon player on our recording, Sebastien Innocenti, by Francoise Choveaux. Margarita Hohenrieder is always treading unusual paths. Together with her friend, the painter Bernd Zimmer, she holds creative performances: "2 left hands," in which Bernd Zimmer creates a picture with his left hand while Margarita Hohenrieder plays works exclusively for the left hand. The well-known jazz musician Ingfried Hoffmann, Hjalmar Hegi Ragnarsson from Iceland and Francoise Choveaux wrote compositions especially for this performance. The cover of this CD and the booklet feature the painting "Ast", 2022 by Bernd Zimmer. The tango "Cristian en el Tortoni Buenos Aires" is dedicated to Margarita Hohenrieder.

This CD is the result of the 12th International Competition "Franz Schubert and Modern Music" (FS & MM), which took place in February 2025 and was organised by the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. The Trio Bronte won 1st prize in the piano trio category with the repertoire on the recording. The Trio was founded in Berlin in 2022 and consists of German-Italian violinist Chiara Sannicandro, Bulgarian pianist Lili Bogdanova, and American cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins. After playing together for only a few months, the Trio Bronte won 1st prize at the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen International Piano Chamber Music Competition in Finland. The trio grew up surrounded by the passionate and turbulent novels of the Bronte sisters and named themselves after them, inspired by their passion for storytelling, their intelligence and their sociability.

Bachkantaten - broken eyes

In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.

This extraordinary album by the artist Agata Maria Raatz combines the best of two musical worlds: Interpretation and composition. The artist is not only a soloist, but also the creator of a new musical work - Reflexe 1766. The album forms a sound bridge between Mozart's time and our present, a musical reflection on past and present experiences. Inspired by a real journey through Switzerland in the summer of 2024 in the historical footsteps of the Mozart family, this album creates a multi-sensory sound journey. The experiences of this route have been deeply incorporated into the composition. A special highlight: the soloist wrote her own cadenzas for both recorded violin concertos. They are artistic statements, personal reflections on Mozart's music. In terms of sound, the recording moves between past and present: historically informed playing meets modern instruments. This subtle balance of tradition, authenticity and innovation creates a touching sound language and an immersive listening experience. Mozart & Modern not only invites you to listen, but also to experience it. The violin becomes a narrator between the times, an echo of Mozart's operatic voice and the voice of a contemporary artist. This album is no ordinary classical music product. The Swiss Mozart Route is artistically anchored in the European cultural heritage, in which QR codes, places and history have just as much a place as water, light, movement and silence. Mozart & Modern is a concept album that needs to be experienced - Agata Maria Raatz takes us on this extraordinary musical journey.

There's no question that the 18th century was entirely focused on the vocal achievements of the great singing stars, both male and female - on both sopranos like Bordoni and Cuzzoni and on castrati like Farinelli and Carestini. They were equivalent to our superstars of today: alter egos of "their" composers, with whom they had fostered a virtually symbiotic relationship. In addition to these singers' technical virtuosity-there's a reason that Baroque arias are among the most difficult in the operatic repertoire-these sometimes almost mythical figures fascinated audiences with their beauty of tone and legato lines. They were oftentimes the absolute rulers of European opera stages - audiences worshipped them as godlike figures, their fees drove many a house to financial ruin, and their vocal artistry was so spectacular that even today, long after their voices have passed, their names are still uttered with reverence and admiration: The great vocal virtuosos of the Baroque period live on in the music that great composers wrote for their voices. Hasse was one of the founders of pre-classicism, which combined Neapolitan vocality with orchestral density, which undoubtedly reflects his German roots. The other German giant of opera seria was George Frideric Handel, who spent most of his life in London and adopted English nationality. Like Hasse, Handel also worked at the Hamburg Opera, where he wrote his first opera score, Almira (1705), at the age of nineteen. The recording was made with one of the world's most important baroque orchestras, the Wiener Akademie Orchester under the direction of Jeremy Joseph.

The violin, a bowed instrument with four strings, of such perfection that it has focussed the attention of composers from the Baroque to the present day. Apart from the piano, no other instrument has had so many important concertos written for it, from Locatelli and Vivaldi, to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, among many others. It might seem unimaginable that this instrument with it's one bow on four strings be able to perform polyphonic works from the piano, Lied and orchestral repertoire unaccompanied, but that is precisely what the great virtuosos of the early Romantic period right up to the modern era repeatedly saw as a challenge in their compositions. Paganini, Ernst and their successors pushed the technical possibilities of the violin to the limit. With this CD we present the most important of these works, which are otherwise pigeonholed as salon or encore pieces. The result is musical gems ranging from practically complete Lieder such as the Erlkonig, to Isang Yun's masterful arrangement of The Musical Offering by Bach. Her debut CD "1939" on Solo Musica with the Munich Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kevin John Edusei received worldwide acclaim, including reviews in BBC magazine, The Strad Magazine, Gramophone and the American Record Guide. This new release is the first solo album by violinist Fabiola Kim, hailed by the New York Times as "a brilliant soloist" who plays "with extraordinary precision and intensity". She is an energetic performer and enjoys a wide-ranging career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.

The recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos No. 20 and 24 is intended as a contrasting twin project to the first recording of No. 15 and 21 released on the Solo Musica label in 2024. The two recordings are like the "yin" and the "yang," the moon and the sun, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of Mozart's creativity. As a pianist, Zhen Chen wants to demonstrate his ability to develop and perform works of different artistic modes. Furthermore, since the pianist and the orchestra remain the same in the two recordings and only the baton has been changed-from the hand of the Austrian conductor Thomas Rosner to the French conductor Paul Meyer-these two recordings are an interesting pair, allowing listeners to savor the difference in the artistic direction of the two conductors. No. 15 and 21 are, in his opinion, the quintessential Mozart piano concertos in major key. They are gleeful, humorous, and uplifting, while No. 20 and 24 are the rare gems of Mozart's multi-movement piano works in minor keys. Out of a total of 27, he composed only two piano concertos in minor keys. They are among the few works by Mozart dominated by an unsettling and gloomy sense.

Carpathian Tales is a project of the artist's heart that has been formed over two years. It represents a musical dedication to her second home Romania - full of personal stories and compositions that capture the spirit of the country and paint a multi-faceted picture of the Carpathians. Each piece is accompanied by it's own story. All works combine the unmistakable energy of folk themes, pure emotionality and show a varied spectrum from melancholy to dancing virtuosity. These are special arrangements and first recordings that come together on this album. For this album, Lelie Cristea also went in search of works that would be equal in beauty and character to the pieces by Enescu and Porumbescu. She herself was surprised by the musical treasures she found and her expectations were far exceeded. All the works are united by their expressive character, which is characterised by folk themes and a wide spectrum of colours. Sensual ballads give way to virtuoso character pieces that joyfully invite you to dance. What always attracts one almost magically is the emotional depth of the compositions. It is up to the performer and, of course, the listener to allow this completely and to immerse themselves in the respective work. Then the pulse of the works begins to connect with your own, and the journey begins. With Carpathian Tales and further planned concept albums, Lelie Cristea fulfils her wish to record and capture special works from classical, film and salon music in exclusive arrangements.

The recording is characterised by an uncompromising fidelity to the work, which makes it possible to experience Richard Strauss' masterpiece in all it's facets. All of the passages that are usually cancelled, which are essential for understanding the work and it's power, have been opened up. Richard Strauss himself emphasised in his memoirs how important words and singing were to him in the opera. He reported that the conductor Ernst von Schuch unleashed the orchestra at the dress rehearsal to such an extent that Strauss had to muffle him in order to maintain a balance with the voices. This admonition accompanied Julien Salemkour and Barbara Krieger as they rehearsed Elektra - a process for which they made intensive use of the covid period. The production was an extraordinary endeavour and an impressive example of creative solutions in difficult times. When it was hardly possible to realise larger music projects, the team decided on an unusual approach: The orchestra was to be recorded first, and the soloists would sing their parts later to the existing orchestral recording - and so a number of international artists came together under the most difficult corona conditions at different times in different places for the recordings. Barbara Krieger took on the title role - an artist who has recently been celebrated in particular as Elektra, Fidelio-Leonore and Isolde. Other renowned Strauss interpreters such as Astrid Weber, Sanja Anastasia and Jochen Kupfer complete the ensemble. Tenor Sotiris Charalampous makes his impressive debut as Aegisth. The internationally acclaimed conductor Julien Salemkour gives the singers unprecedented space to sing and breathe, while at the same time unfolding a tonal opulence that does justice to the origins of this score in all it's facets. Experience an Elektra that impresses with it's unleashed orchestral sound as well as it's extraordinary text comprehensibility - a combination that rarely succeeds.

On their third CD, the outstanding concertante duo Reinhold Friedrich & Eriko Takezawa bring to life music that has hitherto lain dormant or not yet appeared in a deservedly splendid light. In their new CD production, the two exceptional artists present three new discoveries by Alexander Albrecht, Boris Asafiew and Harold Shapero, which are of the utmost importance for the trumpet-piano repertoire. Also noteworthy are the three important repertoire works, the sonatas by Thorwald Hansen, Jean Hubeau and George Antheil, which shine in completely new splendour here. The works are all set between the end of the Romantic period and the transition to the modern era. One can already speak of a historically important recording, as this is the last CD production in the "old" Hans Rosbaud Studio in Baden-Baden before the building was demolished. This acoustically valuable space was home to the great and greatest composers of our time - from Olivier Messiaen to Jorg Widmann, from Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Karlheinz Stockhausen to Peter Eotvos and Wolfgang Rihm. This album Sonatae e Variacie certainly has the potential to become a milestone in the repertoire for trumpet and piano.

In this recording, Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner has compiled a thrilling selection of contemporary works for violin and orchestra by female composers. She describes her vision thus: "I always saw Antonio Vivaldi as an important role model - as solo violinist, composer and mentor of orphaned girls who took instruction in the violin from him. He founded the orchestra of the Ospedale della Piet� in Venice with them, drawing connoisseurs and amateurs from all over Europe and beyond to hear his celebrated violinists. During my long period in Seoul as a practising as a professor of violin, violin soloist and composer. I heard and saw the ballet Giselle to music by Adolphe Adam and was enchanted by an orchestration completely new to me: the instruments of the classical symphony orchestra were augmented by a few selected instruments with silk strings and rosewood such as are familiar in east Asia. I found this combination of tone colours exceptionally attractive and resolved to try out this blend of sounds for myself at home in Europe and bring them to life in an ensemble of my own with selected virtuosos." Violin soloist and composer Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner is hailed by the press as a "cross-cultural traveller" for her idea of merging Eastern and Western traditions in music. It is one of her goals to "to feed the channels of the European ear with new things in an intelligent manner". "Like many composers who make music themselves as practitioners, she has a deeper insight into the music than others (American Record Guide)", a combination she pursues with passion that revives the tradition of the composing virtuosos of yesteryear." For that very reason she aims to encourage composers male and female to write new works for violin and orchestra.

The composer Hans Schaeuble was born in Arosa on 31 May 1906 and died in Zurich on 19 December 1988. His parents were both from Germany. He created 26 operas of all genres and instrumentations, totalling 51 works. All four of these works were premiered before his death on 19 December 1988. He spent the last 20 years of his life revising his oeuvre, sometimes several times, but always marginally: - Wealthy from birth, he established the Hans Schaeuble Foundation to support young musicians and musicologists, who primarily take on the works of the founder. The Music for Clarinet and String Orchestra op. 46 from 1961 is the middle of three wind concertos that Schaeuble apparently composed according to plan between 1959 and 1962. The symphonic-concertante Music for string orchestra with obbligato piano op. 33, composed in January and February 1949, is Schaeuble's third of a total of five works for piano and orchestra. The Music for 2 Violins and String Orchestra op. 18 is the first of only two violin concertos from Hans Schaeuble's pen. Schaeuble wrote the only 'real' one, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra op. 24, at the beginning of the war and completed it on 15 December 1940 in Arosa. Composed in Berlin in 1935, the present music op. 18 was published by Bote & Bock in Berlin in 1936, according to Schaeuble. However, no copy of it has survived either in the estate or in the libraries; worse still, the autograph score and the parts were apparently stored by the publisher and were destroyed during the war.

The view into "infinity" gives freedom! Man lives in his narrow temporal space and, with his mind focussed only on the supposedly 'real' sensory world, grasps only the outside of his being: he loses himself in the multiplicity of things. A feeling for the cosmic interconnectedness of all beings has been lost. In the prison of materialism, man cannot free himself from such polarity - that is why he is ruled by strife, war, egoism, lust for power and possessiveness. The three musical works on this CD offer a glimpse into the liberating infinity beyond things: In THE BIRDS, the world of birds is evoked - even according to principles of mystical alchemy - which are evolutionarily related to dinosaurs and have always been associated with deities, divination and boundless celestial freedom. In FATAL HARMONIES, the deadly harmonies of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, the exaggerated disruption of a contradictory existence is presented, death and negative energies are diametrically opposed to bold genius - extreme light begets extreme shadow in polarity. THE BELLS traces the archetype of bells, whose sound has been waking people up for thousands of years, leading them to transcendence and infinity. With the end of material thinking, of earthly persistence in polarity, judgement and comparison, PEACE could come - because in the face of eternity and infinity, good-evil or mine-his have lost all meaning. This is why the theme of 'peace' takes centre stage twice on this CD - in the concluding 'Dona nobis Pacem' and in the middle movement 'The Swan - The White' of the violin concerto, because this is based on the peace hymn 'El Can't des Ocells' (Song of the Birds) by the Catalan cellist and humanist Pablo Casal, which he played as an encore to every concert throughout his life.

When a CD album bears the title SANCTUARY, it is almost obvious that it is in the spirit of the sacred; yes, it is, but not sacred merely in the religious sense; rather sacred and humanist, sacred and pacifist, sacred and pantheist. So sacred and so profane at the same time. Prayers are expressed in all religions - to remain human, to remain in peace, love and peace. This is the one favour that everyone asks from their respective god. And that's the message of all 12 tracks on the album. Because our time demands it of us - to share the values that are most important to human beings. The 12 poems set in music and which are the source of inspiration, mainly come from the beginning of the 20th century, but all reflect expressionism and result from the crucial problems of the last century, which are very relevant today. The music is often inspired by expressionist aesthetics, without borrowing expressionist musical language; I work with stylistic elements that are specific to me. Prayer and the humanist idea are the common thread - always present in my way of constructing programs and my albums, in this case global in nature and universal before becoming intimate; a call from the bottom of the heart like a cry to the gods (plural), to all the gods on earth, so that they can save and preserve us from the abyss of our sins. Albena Petrovic Vratchanska is a Luxembourgish composer of Bulgarian origin and Knight of the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (2013). She is also honoured with the Silver Medal of Merit from the Union Grand-Duc Adolphe (2017), the Silver Medal from the Union Saint Pie X (2018) and the "2007 Cultural Prize" from the municipality of Hesperange. Anna Bineta Diouf is a German-Senegalese Mezzo-Soprano. On piano we hear the Austrian pianist Eugenia Radoslava. Her CD recordings in the series "Piano-Piano" were among the ten best-selling classical CDs in Germany in 2009.

What makes Ysaye's solo sonatas so extraordinary is the richness of their harmonies, offering endless possibilities to explore a vast spectrum of contrasts in sound projection and violinistic effects each time you engage with them. To me, these works are like a boundless ocean, where every dive reveals something new, enveloping you in an infinite palette of colors and emotions. The experience of both playing and listening to them is nothing short of breathtaking, as they invite you into a world of perpetual discovery, where the music seems to breathe and transform with every interpretation. Elvin Hoxha Ganiyev The Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931) created Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27 in 1923. His intention was to leave a legacy for future generations that would testify to the performance techniques of his time, with particular emphasis on the evolution of musical language since the era of Johann Sebastian Bach. As he wrote: Indeed, the Six Sonatas are dedicated to violinists of European origin, in order: Hungarian, French, Romanian, Austrian, Belgian, and Spanish. However, Ysaye's project was essentially detached from national or Eurocentric concerns, as the dedications were meant to commemorate the greatest musicians of the younger generation. The structure of the collection and the number of works reference Bach's Sonatas (three pieces) and Partitas for Solo Violin (three works), which Ysaye and his contemporaries regarded as a significant point of reference in violin literature. References to Bach, so evident both in the entire collection and in the individual sonatas, are not, however, the only ones that can be found in Op. 27. There are also notable influences from romantic song and mid-19th-century operatic arias, interwoven with references to medieval sequences and the virtuosic style of Niccol� Paganini. When composing the Op. 27 Sonatas, Ysaye was withdrawing from concert life. Therefore, this collection serves as a unique kind of musical testament, commenting on the performance achievements of his era while also anticipating the further development of violin literature. Particularly striking are the recurring motifs of warning and disruption, provocatively foreshadowing changes in the musical language of the second half of the 20th century.

This CD is the first of three albums of music by Giovanni Benedetto Platti, on which we plan to record all twelve cello sonatas and the harpsichord sonatas Op. 1. We are delighted to have found in Platti an interesting and little-known composer whose music is fascinating to explore. Giovanni Benedetto Platti is a classic example of one of the many underestimated composers of the 18th century. Today, his name is familiar only to specialists and his music known to but a very few, yet his work is well worth discovering. A factotum at the Wurzburg court, he wrote eminently attractive sonatas and concertos for oboe, cello, harpsichord and flute, as well as larger scale works including an interesting Requiem. The twelve cello sonatas have survived in a manuscript dated 1725 from the collection of Count von Schonborn in Wiesentheid. They all have four movements and are characterised, as so often in Platti, by a compact and stringent compositional style. Hardly any single movement takes up more than a transverse page of the score, and many of the slow movements only half a page. Born in South Tyrol, Alex Jellici studied the cello in his home town of Bolzano, then in Florence, Vienna and Zurich under Luca Fiorentini, Giovanni Gnocchi and Orfeo Mandozzi. Further studies in baroque cello and viola da gamba followed under Martin Zeller at the Zurich University of the Arts. Matias Lanz has been organist at the Winterthur Veltheim Reformed Church since 2013. He has also been active as a tango pianist for several years. In 2022, together with bandoneonist Jens Biedermann, he founded Tango Bodegon, a cuarteto tipico dedicated to the performance of traditional Argentinian tango. He has attended tango masterclasses with Roger Helou, Pablo Estigarribia, Leonardo Ferreyra and Rodolfo Mederos.

Anna Maria Kaufmann the Canadian and German Musical and opera singer releases the first album on the Label Solo Musica. It's a Good Day for Singing a Song - the first line of the title song puts it in a nutshell. Anna Maria Kaufmann has fulfilled a musical dream and presents a brilliant selection of their favorite songs on her new album It's a Good Day! Anna Maria Kaufmann leading US on a musical journey into the 1950 's and 1960 's at a time when Bossa Nova Mambo and Cha Cha Cha bring the people to the dance floors. With her unique voice she performs great songs from that time period like Amado Mio and Mambo Italiano. Whether passionate melodies with Latin American rhythms such as Mambo Bacan and Libertango moving ballads such as Moon River or immortal evergreens such as Bel Ami all the songs go immediately direct into the heart.

By choosing to record classical repertoire with electric bass, including Bach’s Cello Suites, Jacques Bono has acquired a unique position in the music business. Playing them at their Thuringian church “original sites” put Bach's works into high contrast by interpreting them on an instrument of our times, more than 300 years after their composition – a project never ventured before. The time, the separation into musical genres and the familiar listening sensations are all overcome in Jacques Bono's performances. The cellist unperturbedly countered initial doubts by critics who claimed that it was impossible to perform Bach's cello suites on an electric bass with a musical venture that has music lovers of all origins intrigued – a revolutionary act in the best sense of musical tradition. In 2013 Jacques Bono had the idea of recording Bach’s 'Inventionen' in two voices together with a female violinist. On the German classical music scene he could not find a female violinist who would venture to play freely with him without fear of offending academically imposed values. He was thus delighted to find Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu in Los Angeles, who proved to be a violinist capable of playing J. B. Bach's music vivaciously, in a heart-felt manner and free of dogma.

Sharon Brauner comes from a family who has been in the German film industry for five decades. Now, however, she is clearly focused on her music. On this album we find a whole new musical presentation of wonderful and well-known evergreens sung in the Yiddish language. There are classics like “Bay mir bistu sheyn (To me you are beautiful)” which have been moved to the beach of Copacabana and are sung with an electro sound and tango feel. With “Tumbalalaika,” she utilizes elements of the far east, and the ballads of the album sound more like pop than what is usually found in Yiddish music.

This CD presents first recordings of two original, very different and thus far unknown Romantic works for solo cello: Julius Klengel's Suite in D minor op. 56 and Hugo Becker's Fantastische Suite, op. 14. Both of these early 20th c. works represent the two leading cellists' discovery of composing late in life. Like Paul Tortelier's strongly Bach-oriented Suite in D minor, they are important additions to the solo cello repertoire. National and international competition prizewinner cellist Markus Wagner has been Prof. of Music at Nürnberg College of Music since 2007.

Beethoven's five cello sonatas are the quintessence of his personality and work: they exemplify the creative development of this great composer who is perhaps even more relevant in our modern, ephemeral society in which little time is left for reflection. + Cellist Maja Weber and pianist Per Lundberg have been playing chamber music together for more than twenty years, mostly in piano quartets and quintets. + The idea of forming "Duo Leonore" was thus a natural consequence of their working together.

Music of Johann Sebastian Bach was always fundamental for Aliya Turetayeva. From the first listening of his Mass in B minor in her childhood, his music has accompanied her through her life. Almost every day she starts with the music of Bach in order to be "well-tuned" throughout the day. She always felt connected with eternity through his music and shared many happy and tragic moments during the years listening to his output. Bach's music was always a symbol of faith for the artist - many times in life his music gave Aliya Turetayeva strength to live further and not to give up; it will remain to be a symbol of faith for her, to be her Credo. Aliya Turetayeva was born in 1986 in Almaty, Kazakhstan and received her first piano lesson at the age of five. Aliya moved to Cologne, Germany to continue her studies at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Koln as a student of Professor Pavel Gililov. She was awarded her Masters degree in 2010. As well as her work as a soloist, Aliya Turetayeva is a dedicated chamber musician. She recorded chamber music works by G. Crumb and A. Schnittke for WDR Radio Cologne. She also completed 2013 her postgraduate studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg under the tutelage of Professor Gililov with the highest mark.

The biographies and the music of Debussy, Ravel, and de Falla contain multiple hidden reflections, many elements that mirror each other. These reflections are so clear-cut that it becomes difficult in many cases to make out the original image. Music inspired by Iberia and the piano as an instrument were certainly common ground, on which the three composers engaged in a lively artistic exchange. The Romantic piano repertoire has appropriated music of the most diverse origins. Considering the particular instrument that originally inspired it, we could almost call the result regeneration rather than mere transcription, as if the music were reborn in it's pure form. The works included on this CD showcase guitar, harp and piano in just such a complementary relationship. Indeed, Maurice Ravel personally noted in his score of Miroirs for the pianist Vlado Perlemuter, that he should imitate the guitar or the harp in certain passages. In his article La guitara, Manuel de Falla in his turn writes of how marvellously Debussy depicts the artistic qualities of the instrument, without ever having used the guitar at all in his works. Having grown up with the Romantic tradition, many pianists of the time had difficulties doing justice to the new musical imagery of Symbolism. Chronicles from the time reveal a certain impatience in composers, who required from interpreters a new technique and a different use of the sustaining pedal. Unlike the piano, both guitar and harp emit softer, less defined contours, in keeping with the melancholic and equivocal timbres of Debussy and Ravel. Ever since his student days, Maurizio Grandinetti's main interest has been broadening the musical horizons of his instrument. He is currently soloist, chamber musician and improviser. His career so far has taken him to the most important festivals and concert halls in numerous European countries, Brazil, the USA and China. For 14 years Consuelo Giulianelli was professor for harp at the Stella Matutina Private Music Academy in Feldkirch, Austria. Alongside studies with Mirella Vita and Ursula Holliger, that she completed with distinction, she attended courses by Marielle Nordmann and Pierre Jamet, who premiered the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp by Claude Debussy.