In addition to working on his own compositions, arranging the works of other composers was a constant in Mozart's life. In 1766, Johann Christian Bach was to publish his 'Six Sonatas for Pianoforte or Harpsichord Opus 5' in London. Wolfgang liked these so much that he arranged three sonatas from the collection as concertos for harpsichord. In these three concertos, the harpsichord part is practically identical to the original sonatas by J. Ch. Bach. Although the character of the manuscript suggests that the manuscript (which bears the hand of both Leopold and Wolfgang) could have been made between 1770 and 1772, it is likely that it is based on an earlier draft, close in time to the publication of the Opus 5 sonatas by Christian Bach. Whatever the case, Wolfgang probably planned these chamber concertos for later performances in small, private circles, both in Salzburg and on a new journey through Italy. In April 1764, Bach and the 8-year-old Mozart (!) performed together for the first time in London. The Mozart family's admiration for Johann Christian Bach lasted a lifetime.

The oboe quartet W.B. 60 No.1 by Bach's youngest son, Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782), is no longer baroque at all, despite the musical education he received from his father and older brother Wilhelm Friedemann. His music thrives on sparkling melodies and an accompaniment bursting with ideas, which gives each instrument in his quartet compositions a high degree of independence and charming solos. Mozart's oboe quartet also reflects the new, virtuoso possibilities of the elegant and sensitive classical oboe and combines them with the lyrical sound of the strings. The fact that we know little music by Johann Baptist Wanhal (1739-1813) today does not do justice to the extensive oeuvre of this composer, who was successful during his lifetime. Born in Bohemia and died in Vienna, Wanhal was one of the most progressive musical personalities of his time. The last piece on this recording, Mozart's Adagio K. 580a in a version for cor anglais and strings, exists only as a fragment and shares thematic material with K. 618, Ave Verum Corpus, which was written in 1791, six months before Mozart's death, and which is thought to anticipate elements of the Requiem.

At a time when the world situation is changing drastically and fear, worry and negativity reign, many people feel tired and overwhelmed. With "HOPE", the release of various spiritual and gospel songs, the duo Praxedis would like to set an antipole to let hope and confidence flow into people's hearts. For the first time, they are dedicating themselves to the fascinating world of sacred, heavenly songs from America and have written their own arrangements for the duo genre of the two solo instruments harp and piano, which was popular in the 19th century. The complexity of the poetry in the 23 songs allows for different moods and interpretations. On the one hand, there are allusions to the social situation alongside a belief in the hereafter. The call to protest stands alongside the longing for freedom. The belief in a higher power stands alongside the need for a leader to save us from enslavement by the events of the world. Just as it was today when the songs were written. Living on multiple planes of existence as a citizen of the earth is becoming increasingly oppressive, with well-defined structures as a projection screen for the social cliche that society makes of us all. While songs used to be performed as a vocal construct with accompanying instruments, the interpretation with harp & piano dusts off the religious scheme of the time by omitting the singing voice and emphasizes the topicality of the works, which deal with themes of the human longing for love, light and peace, through spherical harp sounds in dialogue with sparkling piano dynamics.

The four-hand versions of orchestral works by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy recorded here by Sontraud Speidel and Franziska Lee are all by the composer himself and correspond to the musical text of the respective first editions published during Mendelssohn's lifetime, with the sole exception of the overture to the early Singspiel Soldatenliebschaft, whose first publication as part of the Mendelssohn Complete Edition appeared with so many printing errors that a correction was urgently required. This was done by Sontraud Speidel and the Karlsruhe music researcher Dr Joachim Draheim. The five works span a period of 22 years, presenting interesting examples of little-known music for the operatic stage and the Overture op. 24, unfortunately almost never heard, with two famous compositions from Mendelssohn's mature years, both of which were inspired by the profound impressions of the journey to Scotland (summer 1829).

Domenico Giuseppe Scarlatti (1685-1757) devoted himself to a single form like no other composer before him. The more than 550 mostly single-movement sonatas for the harpsichord influenced numerous composers throughout the ages, from his contemporary Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederic Chopin to 21st-century artists such as Georg Katzer. The four selected sonatas K 27, K 213, K 247 and K 268 represent only a small selection of his immensely varied oeuvre and yet they illuminate all the different aspects of his extraordinarily creative composing. Scarlatti himself modestly described many of his sonatas as "Essercizi per gravicembalo". His sonata works contain every conceivable technical challenge, as he himself was one of the most sought-after and virtuoso harpsichordists of his time. Georg Katzer (1935-2019) composed the Five Miniatures in 1971. They are primarily to be understood as gestural music. Although the playing technique is traditional with a few exceptions (the use of the elbows or rolling hands), the miniatures reveal a wealth of ideas in musical forms of expression that evoke the most diverse sensations in a short space of time and space. The work Due to my admiration for D.S. was composed by Georg Katzer in 2001. The close relationship between Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) and her brother Felix Mendelssohn encouraged both siblings throughout their musical careers. And yet, throughout her life, Fanny Hensel fought for even remotely similar recognition of her extraordinary talent as a pianist, conductor and composer. The Four Songs for Pianoforte, Opus 2, are among the few works published by Bote & Bock in 1846 during Fanny Hensel's lifetime.

The basic idea behind this album and the compositions for the 'pure' concert programme of the same name is to present the percussion instruments in their full range. The focus is on the creation of new sounds and tones and the exploration of boundaries. As a result, in addition to our classical acoustic instruments, 'pure' also utilises artificial sounds and everyday objects and elements from our environment such as water, wood and iron. Furthermore, as classically trained percussionists, it was also important to us to venture into classical pieces and reinterpret them with our instruments and, in some cases, by adding synthetic sounds and noises. For this reason, in addition to two arrangements, 'pure' features exclusively our own compositions, which will provide listeners with a completely new sound and listening experience.

Building a new organ is always an exciting journey for an organ builder. What should a new organ look like, how should it sound, how should it fit into the church interior, what traditional reference points are there, what should be played on this new organ in addition to the important church music, how historical, how modern may the action, wind system and finally the entire pipework be built. In the Church of the Four Evangelists in the Protestant parish of Berlin-Pankow, the requirements were clear. An organ by the famous Berlin organ builder Carl August Buchholz (1796 - 1884) no longer existed in the church. Is it possible to rebuild a Buchholz organ in such a way that it seems possible that C.A. Buchholz would have built this new organ in exactly the same way in 1840, for example? We organ builders at the Wegscheider organ workshop set ourselves this special task, having already restored and reconstructed several Buchholz organs, visited and examined other surviving Buchholz organs and were very familiar with this particular organ sound language of the first half of the 19th century in the Prussian lands. A suitable specification with 27 stops was created, an early Schwellwerk with side doors (entirely in the Buchholz style) was designed, the metal and wooden pipes as well as the reed stops were built according to the models and the voicing was adapted to the church interior in terms of response, sound volume and dynamics. Particular emphasis was placed on the feel of the keys, which must harmonise with what the player hears. The aim was not to build a particularly light action, but rather one that harmonised with the early romantic sound. The historical keyboard aesthetics with the stop action, the music desk, the swell lever, the historical proportions between the manual pianos and the pedal keyboard also serve to immerse the performer completely in the early romantic tonal spirit. Kristian Wegscheider, master organ builder Dresden, Henry Fairs, Professor of Artistic Organ Playing at the Berlin University of the Arts, plays the complete works for organ by Robert Schumann.

In our first CD 'Musical Pearls' (2022), we have opened the door wide to the amazing repertoire of the 20th century for flute and harp. Thanks to the unique compositions in each composer's oeuvre, this repertoire immediately gives an idea of how extensive the range of compositional techniques was throughout the 20th century. Works by Inghelbrecht, Liebermann, Maayani, Rorem and Lutoslawski could be discovered. This second CD opens the door a little wider and once again reveals the richness and diversity of this original repertoire. This time the following six composers are presented: Rohozinsky, Alwyn, Zbinden, Gotkowski, Feld and Holliger. These two CDs are part of a discographic project dedicated to this astonishing original repertoire for flute and harp of the 'post-Debussy era'. Our aim is to collect the most representative works from very different genres and to reconstruct this corpus, rich in style and colour, and free it from it's shadowy existence. We follow the many traces of this extensive repertoire, which has never before been compiled in this way, with the flute and harp duo showing a thousand different faces. Quite delicately and with winding melodic lines, the duo also unfolds a rhythmic and virtuoso extravagance in a different light. Different facets sometimes show a serious and austere character and at other times humour with sarcastic punchlines. This contrasting repertoire - with it's sensual, bold or rough lines, depending on the moment - amazes and captivates. The moods unfold without hesitation, asserting themselves, spreading out in the light and captivating us with a sometimes reserved, sometimes haunting emotion.

The CD spans an arc from Italy to Central Germany and includes concerti by Vivaldi and Johann Ernst von Sachsen-Weimar, which Bach arranged for organ. The arrangements are thus an encounter between different composers, who here converse with each other and exchange ideas. Johannes Krahl presents them on the historic Silbermann organ of the Katholische Hofkirche Dresden.

On period instruments To this day, Venice is one of the European cities that exerts an extraordinary attraction on tourists, and if you trace it's history back, it underwent a development from the 15th to the 18th century in particular that predestined it to become a music metropolis. But what is the attraction of Venetian music? Probably the freshness, open-heartedness and lively bustle of the people with their informal and open-minded disposition, living in a harbour city that opened up to the world early on thanks to it's location on the Mediterranean and blossomed through international trade. Without a doubt, only Vivaldi's music is able to convey these essential elements to us contemporary people in an easily understandable and simple way. Miho Fukio (baroque bassoon) plays the 3rd CD here, together with Dominik Worner (bass) and the Ensemble F. This CD represents the endeavour to bring together and present Antonio Vivaldi's (1678-1741) bassoon concertos with the bass arias from his operas, which are closely related to the bassoon repertoire.

Scandinavian choral music can almost be described as a musical 'trademark' such as Italian opera. If the keyword is used, one has involuntarily certain composer names in mind or even a typical sound in one's ear. The Amadeus Choir under Nicol Matt traces this phenomenon in its recording on Ars Produktion. The high artistic and technical standard of the Amadeus-chor, testified by its interpretations of a cappella choral works and of works for choir and orchestra, in collaboration with famous soloists and orchestras, has allowed it to become one of the most significant amateur choirs of southern Germany.Karl-Friedrich Beringer, who is also conductor of the Windsbacher Knabenchor, created the Amadeus-chor in 1970. Dr. Julian Tolle conducted it from 1994 to 2001. In June 2001, Nicol Matt was appointed new conductor of the ensemble. The choir is comprised of about fifty people from southern and central Germany.

The selection of cantatas presented on this CD is based on the critical edition prepared by Alice Borciani for the Istituto Italiano per la Storia della Musica under the direction of the musicologist Luigi Collarile. The volume brings together the twelve cantatas by Antonio Cesti on texts by the poet Giovanni Filippo Apolloni, a friend and compatriot of the composer. The ensemble Il Zabaione musicale borrows its name from a collection of music by Adriano Banchieri published in Milan in 1604. This ensemble specialising in early music was founded in 2010 by Alice Borciani (Italy), Elam Rotem (Israel) and Ryosuke Sakamoto (Japan), who met while studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Their interest in early music and especially the repertoire of the Italian early baroque led to various concerts in Italy and Switzerland. Musicological research plays a fundamental role in the work of the ensemble, whose main goals include rediscovering unexplored musical repertoire and working with original sources.

Ocean, you mighty monster! I would like to take you into the adventurous world of oceans and seafaring. Piano pieces that represent water musically have always fascinated me. During the pandemic, a great wanderlust was added to this. Thus the idea for this CD programme was born. With a lot of curiosity, I went in search of traces among various composers and found plenty. In what kind of different music does the vibration of the sea find its echo? I was thrilled by the sensual and emotional palette of colours that opened up to me. The sea, which can be heard in the six compositions of this recording, shows itself in all its facets: from meditative silence on the water to the unleashed force of nature. - Lydia Maria Bader

In a time of change and challenge, Fumito Nunoya was inspired by the transcendent power of music. He experienced solace and connection through music. The album "Marimba Prayers" presents a multifaceted selection of works ranging from well-known masters such as Johann Sebastian Bach to contemporary composers. Nunoya's virtuoso playing awakens emotions and touches souls. This CD invites you on a profound journey of discovery through sounds that spring from the depths of life.

It is with pride that I present a special edition dedicated to the famous pianist, composer and conductor Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, whose profound musical genius has left an indelible mark on the world of classical music. His music seamlessly blends elements of Russian Romanticism with influences from Western European traditions, creating a distinctive, expressive style and the ability to evoke a wide range of emotions. He has always been a shining example of unwavering dedication to music for me and has always encouraged me to persevere and strive for artistic excellence despite personal and professional challenges. With this album, I pay tribute to Sergei Rachmaninoff on the occasion of his 150th birthday and the 80th anniversary of his death, and present some of his remarkable and timeless works. Another important person in my life, on whose 80th anniversary I am producing this album, is Maestro Vakhtang Jordania. We recorded Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto with the Russian Federal Orchestra in Moscow in 2000, when I was 18 years old, after winning the "Jordania Special Prize" at the International Competition in Italy. That was my very first CD recording and one of the most remarkable moments in my life, motivating me in many ways. Shorena Tsintsabadze