Between child prodigy and wife: I have selected virtuoso works by four female composers of a generation with very different lives, but all the pieces have in common temperament and often effervescent lightness. In the meantime, many names of female composers are known, their works are played more and more. However, especially in the 19th century, a disproportionate amount of music unfortunately did not find its way into the publishing houses. This was the greatest obstacle to the safe transmission of works for posterity until the end of the 20th century. It was not until the internet that women composers were able to find their own players and audiences. In addition, female musicians' careers were made more difficult or even prevented by social circumstances. Educating a child prodigy was not only a potentially very lucrative business for ambitious parents in Mozart's time, but also in the 19th century many children were educated to stage maturity at a very early age. But after marriage, which was obligatory at some point, the girls had to limit their sphere of activity to salons or charity galas. And studying was not possible for many years anyway, so unfortunately women often received a rather superficial musical education. As always, exceptions confirm the rule. One can see from the exemplary biographies of "my" four female composers that long careers then seemed possible only in tandem with a musician who was also working professionally. And that often different rules applied to foreign women than to the "respectable ladies" of the domestic society.

The fruitful exchange between harp practice and composition – The harp is a unique instrument in many ways. With its unmistakable sound and specific playing technique, the expertise of harpists is indispensable for composers, many of whom are not harpists themselves. In the best-case scenario, both sides win from this exchange — the composer is inspired by the possibilities of the instrument, and the composition reveals new facets of the instrument. For this recording, Julia Wacker has gathered a number of felicitous examples of such exchanges between performer and composer, as each of these 20th-century pieces presents the many facets and often surprising aspects of the harp.

The carefully compiled programme selection consists of Spanish music composed between the 16th and 19th centuries. Presented are both very famous composers and lesser known ones, but with pieces of convincing quality. All of them together, especially in the arrangement chosen for this album, offer very interesting contrasting experiences and testify to the rich diversity of music for keyboard instruments of this period. Inés Moreno Uncilla has chosen these three instruments for her recording:

- A single-manual harpsichord with a short octave [bass octave] and divided upper keys, built by Matthias Griewisch, 2016, after an Italian model from around 1600.
- A single-manual harpsichord, built in 1987 by Tony Chinnery, copy of an instrument by C. Grimaldi (1697).
- A two-manual harpsichord, built by William Dowd in 1979, copy of an instrument by N&F-E. Blanchet (1730).

Each of the three instruments is a copy of an old example from the period in question, which helps to approximate the original sound - a wonderful journey through time with the help of music.

Christus der Meister is the second of three Christus oratorios from the pen of Friedrich Schneider. After the prelude to the trilogy, Christus das Kind, was performed again by the Kantorei Barmen-Gemarke shortly before Christmas 2019 after more than a hundred years, the work that comes second within the trilogy but was written chronologically first now follows. Schneider's Christus Trilogy, which was originally planned as a series of four full-length oratorios, i.e. as a tetralogy, is of some significance in terms of genre history. Schneider's trilogy is also special in that it ranges from the story of the Nativity to the Passion, thus encompassing the entire life of Jesus. Schneider did not compose the originally intended fourth oratorio, Christ the Glorified.

Eight sonorous pieces that rise above themselves. Stylistics serve to be thought further. Doors are torn open, new horizons open up. Interaction. Communication. Fusion. Between the percussionist Kai Strobel, the pianist Katharina Treutler and the Argentinian bandoneon player and composer Omar Massa, something like this is created seemingly without friction. In other words, the best starting conditions for an adventure that light-footedly escapes pigeonholing - regardless of whether it is called tango nuevo, chamber music or jazz. Interpretations of famous pieces by the Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla meet new commissioned works tailored to this ensemble. The common denominator is clearly defined: To create something new for the present …

When Saint-Saens invited his guests - all famous colleagues from past and present - to the masked ball, he gave each one a characteristic costume: Paganini becomes a kangaroo, Jacques Offenbach finds himself as a turtle with his Cancan in slow motion, the virtuoso Frederic Chopin mutates into a wild animal ... There are also chickens, fish, a lion and the world-famous swan. The Chronatic Quartet pays homage to all these figures and their host and puts some fossils in their place with their individual interpretation. This is not a note-for-note transcription of the "animal defile", but its own compositional interpretation.

Three extraordinary musical personalities from several nations meet and let the string trio literature blossom in multi-layered sound and intelligent dialogue. When the Leipzig String Trio was founded, violinist Adrian Iliescu, violist Atilla Aldemir and cellist Rodin Moldovan were already internationally successful soloists who had won multiple awards. Their chamber music passion brought them together in 2019. After several joint concerts and chamber music festivals, their first CD is now available, whose repertoire selection (Ernst von Dohnányi, String Trio "Serenade" C major, Op.10 - Jean Françaix, String Trio - Johann Sebastian Bach, Chaconne for solo violin, arrangement for string trio by András von Tòszeghi - Jean Sibelius, String Trio in g minor, JS 210 and George Enescu, Aubade C major, demonstrates the artistic maturity and virtuosity of this ensemble.

It is their stated intention to breathe new life into the exciting combination of harp and piano. International Piano Magazine. The Duo Praxedis, harpist Praxedis Hug-Rütti and pianist Praxedis Geneviève Hug, have been reviving the unjustly almost forgotten tradition of the harp-piano duo since 2010. Rudolf Lutz, Rolf Urs Ringger and Xavier Dayer dedicate their compositions to the duo. The musicians combine these modern works with compositions from the 17th and 18th centuries - an interesting mixture, a cabinet of rarities.

Three nights of recording this album are behind me. This time has brought me even closer to the instrument of the organ-building company Hermann Eule in the Cathedral of St. Petri in my home town of Bautzen, which has been well known to me since my early childhood. The mystical atmosphere and soul of the house of God are especially palpable at night, when everything is silent and dark outside. The focus of my programme is Johann Sebastian Bach, who is an important guide and inspirer for me. Seb. Bach is for me the beginning and end of all music; on him rests and is based all true progress!" - this quote by Max Reger runs as a common thread through my programme for the recording. The important Leipzig Thomaskantor was also an important creative source for Karl Straube, Max Reger and Franz Liszt. Each of the pieces on this CD finds its own reference to the work and person of the Baroque master: from late Romantic arrangements of Bach works by Karl Straube and Max Reger, to a work by Franz Liszt that quotes thematic motifs from Bach works, to Max Reger's monumental composition on the tone letters B-A-C-H, all the compositions revolve around the person and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. I go in search of the musical expression of the 19th century and trace compositions and interpretations from this period. Numerous recordings on the historic Sauer and Walcker organs already document the tonal and musical influences of the late Romantic period on the way music was made. The Eule organ in Bautzen's St. Peter's Cathedral, with its broad sound spectrum and numerous fundamental voices, offers an instrument directly suited to this repertoire. Already Karl Straube, who performed the organ recording on 8 March 1910, was particularly impressed by the mild intonation of the sound body. The recording is my personal gift on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversaries of Karl Straube and Max Reger, which will be celebrated on 06 January 2023 and 09 March 2023 respectively. The programme revels in Bach interpretations around 1900, the heyday of symphonic organ art. In this epoch, not only were new compositions specifically geared to the instruments of the time created in the field of organ music, but existing works were also arranged. The listener embarks on a journey into the past and experiences with Romantic ears a 100-year-old reception history of Johann Sebastian Bach's music. Each of the recorded works refers in its own way to Johann Sebastian Bach, whose figure and name inspired Karl Straube, Max Reger and Franz Liszt to create new, contemporary late Romantic works."

The Ukrainian word mrija" means dream. Its very sound is soft and singing. They are dreams that give us wings, as it were, and lift us out of everyday life - they give us hope and bring us joy and happiness. We experience it as painful when an intimate dream is destroyed by violence from outside. I like to dream and I don't want to see the dreams of Ukrainians destroyed either. Since 24 February 2022, no Ukrainian can dream of anything but the end of a brutal, senseless war. Russia has bombed rows and rows of Ukrainian towns and villages and destroyed the largest aircraft in the world in the very first month of the war - this too bore the name "Mrija". In contrast, the Ukrainians only grew stronger in their dreams of freedom, peace and victory - for which they have been fighting at the front ever since. It is a struggle for the preservation of an independent national history and language, a culture that is reflected in the poetry and paintings of master artists as well as in the work of Ukrainian composers of various epochs - a struggle that has become particularly sadly topical since Russia claimed that Ukraine did not exist as a state and will not exist as such. The music on this CD energetically counters this with a centuries-old, independent musical culture. This album brings together unique works of classical Ukrainian piano music. Many of them find their first recording here and it is an honour for me to introduce the listener to such interesting pieces, which - unfortunately - are largely unknown in Europe so far. I have been dealing with the music of my homeland for years. This time I am inviting my listeners to Central and Eastern Ukraine, the part of the country where I was born. The programme includes works by Lysenko, Jedlicka, Stepowyj and Rewuzkyj. All four are in the Romantic tradition and yet - each in their own way - were pioneers who broke new ground with their music. They were also talented pianists and created a variety of brilliant music for the piano. Each of the composers presented was a patriot, striving to develop genuinely Ukrainian music. They were all passionate about the folklore of their homeland and wrote their vocal pieces in the Ukrainian language."

So you see that I can write as I like, beautifully and wildly, straight and crooked. The other day I had a bad sense of humour, so I wrote beautifully, straight and seriously; today I am well rhymed, so I write wildly, crookedly and merrily; now it all depends on what you prefer, - - you have to choose between the two, because I have no means: beautifully or wildly, straight or crookedly, seriously or merrily, the first three words or the last three. So wrote Mozart in a letter to his cousin, the "Bäsle". The sonatas united in this recording, like the C minor Fantasy, are suitable for showing the two-facedness of Mozart's mind as well as his works.

For Anastassiya Dranchuk's debut album 'Rites de Passage', the choice of pieces by Tchaikovsky, Say, Schubert and Liszt was no coincidence. The pieces had and have special emotional significance in Anastasiya's life. For her, the individual compositions represent rites of passage (rites de passage, a concept from ethnology): they tell of the transition from childhood to adulthood, peace to war, birth to death … In general, it is an emotionally and tonally very colourful, technically demanding programme that deals with the most diverse dualities.

In musicology, it has always been difficult to name the transitional period after the Baroque. Terms such as "sentimentalism", "Sturm und Drang" or "pre-classical" are usually borrowed from other art forms and are potentially fraught with judgements or preconceptions. Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach is one of the key figures of this "in-between time" and one of the representatives of a radical change in musical aesthetics.

The philosopher and aesthetic theorist Johann Georg Sulzer described the ideal "soulful" trio sonata in his "General Theory of the Fine Arts" (1771-1774) as follows: "The actual trio has three main voices, which concert against each other, and as it were maintain a conversation in tones." In his opinion, music should reflect "a sensitive conversation in merely passionate tones among characters that are the same or different from one another". "Singing accompaniment of the theme, appropriate to each instrument; free imitations; unexpected and melodious entrances, in which one voice falls, as it were, into the speech of the other; throughout, a comprehensible and well-cadenced singing and interjections in all voices, without one being obscured by the other; even difficulties and passages of importance, for a change, fill out the remaining part of the piece, and make the trio one of the most pleasant pieces of chamber music." Sulzer also noted, "Good trios of this kind, however, are rare."

According to Sulzer, the sonatas of "our Hamburg Bach" were a prime example of this genre. They "are so eloquent that one thinks one hears not tones but an intelligible language that sets our imagination and sensibilities in motion, and entertains. [...] The sonatas by this same author, with two concertante main voices accompanied by a bass, are truly passionate conversations in tone…”

The Russian pianist Anastasia Yasko plays four important works by Frédéric Chopin which represent the different periods in his oeuvre: two polonaises - Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante Op. 22 and Polonaise-Fantasie Op. 61, the last Ballade Op. 52 and the Sonata Op. 58.

Writes Yasko: "...The music of Frédéric Chopin has always been very close to my heart. From my first years at music school and later at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, I had a special attitude towards Chopin's music. For me, Chopin is an extremely 'pianistic' composer. He left behind more than 230 works, of which about 200 were composed exclusively for piano. But it is not only the high proportion of piano works that underlines this. In Chopin's works, the piano as an instrument represents an unmistakable, autonomous sound world, without any attempt to exceed the limits of the instrument or even to imitate other instruments. There is an almost immeasurable depth and a wide horizon in his music... One finds here everything that is so valuable for piano playing: a beautiful, quasi-vocal melodicism, which shows itself in every voice of his often polyphonic texture; the filigree brilliance of melodic passages; a particularly fine phrasing and pedaling. Chopin is often called a 'poet of the piano', but nevertheless he refrains from any particular program in his works, even despite the Romantic tradition of his time. His music speaks for itself and immerses the listener in a world of fantasy. Chopin composed in many different genres. Mastering both his complex monumental works and pianistically and musically highly intricate miniatures could be a lifetime task for any musician."

The South Korean Suhyun Kim (viola) studies concert performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, the Ukrainian Ievgeniia Iermachkova (piano) is a lecturer at the International Music Academy Anton Rubinstein in Düsseldorf.

BRIDGE: Pensiero exhibits that brooding melancholy mood characteristic of the composer's chamber music. The Allegro appassionato is dominated in its frame sections by a moment of rousing energy and rapturous sonority, which contrast with a nostalgic-sounding middle section.

ENESCU: His concert piece for viola and piano was written in 1906 for a competition. It is a lyrical rhapsody whose viola part, however, demands virtuoso skills from the player - Enescu himself had been a violinist (and pianist) prodigy. The one-movement work mixes elements of French impressionism with those of Romanian folklore.

R. SCHUMANN: Schumann composed the two-part work for "pianoforte and horn", published in July 1849 as Adagio and Allegro op. 70 by Friedrich Kistner in Leipzig, but already there he left the option of a version with "ad libitum violoncello or violin" as an alternative.

CLARKE: Rebecca Clarke is today considered one of the most important British composers of the interwar period. Trained as a violinist and especially as a violist - she was a pupil of Lionel Tertis, the most important violist of his era - she was one of the first women to be appointed to a professional orchestra, the Queen's Hall Orchestra, which opened the "Proms" concert series. She submitted her three-movement Sonata for Viola and Piano, written in 1919, to the composition competition in Berkeley for the "Coolidge International Prize" and won second prize among a large number of competitors, although it was probably only the unusual circumstance that she was a woman that led to the first prize being awarded to the composer Ernest Bloch.