The pieces selected by Bruno Borralhinho and Christoph Berner for this recording were written between 1883 and 1894. Three youth works are juxtaposed, in which Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and Alexander von Zemlinsky assure themselves equally of their mastery of their compositional craft and in which, for the first time, an unmistakable signature of their own can be heard. The portuguese cellist Bruno Borralhinho is a member of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of the Ensemble Mediterrain. His professional activity includes regular soloist performances in solo recitals, with orchestra or with piano accompaniment. Among his highlights is the unanimously acclaimed interpretations of Bach's 6 Suites with the Montagnana Suggia and Beethoven's Complete Works for Cello and Piano with the Stradivari King of Portugal, both in Lisbon. He led Masterclasses in Brazil, Portugal and Spain. Christoph Berner’s enormous stylistic spectrum and musical versatility is shown to audience and critics alike in his impressive discography of the last few years. The recording of the Johannes Brahms’ complete works for clarinet and piano with Laura Ruiz-Ferreres, the highly regarded recordings with the acclaimed tenor Werner and the release of Fin de siècle songs with the successful mezzosoprano Anke Vondung were awarded prestigious prizes, including the BBC Classic Award, the ECHO, the German record critics’ award and the Diapason d’or.

The Amadeus Chor sings 'Abendlieder', inspired by the tradition of the Evensong. On the threshold of the night the day is considered, lamentation, thanks and praise and prayer have room. In the transition to sleep, to dream, people entrust themselves to the hidden light in the darkness. And so the compositions invite to a kind of second naivety, to peace and confidence in a reliable and true universe. Amadeus-Chor (= AMN) is an ensemble of some 50 singers, whose common interest is choir music at a very high level. Being located in Neuendettelsau (near Nuremberg, Germany) its members gather for rehearsal weekends from all over south Germany once a month.

Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger is one of those late Romantic composers who enjoyed extraordinary popularity during his lifetime, but whose works are largely forgotten today. In 1890 Rheinberger wrote one of his most personal and soulful works, the Christmas cantata "Der Stern von Bethlehem" for solos, choir and orchestra, for which his wife, the then-published poet Franziska von Hoffnaaß, had written the text. The cantata premiered on December 24, 1892, at the Kreuzkirche in Dresden and soon became one of Rheinberger's best-known and most beautiful oratorical creations. His nine "Advent Motets" were written in 1893, composed as a contribution to the traditional cultivation of the chants of the church service, which changed according to the church year. These motets are assigned to the liturgy of the four Sundays of Advent and form a coherent cycle for the Advent season.

The present release "The Sleep of Reason" uses Tedesco's setting of Goya's artwork "El Sueño de la Razón Produce Monstruos" ("The Sleep of Reason gives birth to monsters") as the centerpiece of the album, which summarizes 400 years of "guitar dreams" and explains the current reality of professional guitarists. As a musical label, each work takes the listener on a journey of discovery and understanding of the term "classical guitar". Álvaro Mendizabal is a business manager who has studied classical guitar with numerous renowned guitarists such as Grammy winners Sergio Assad and David Russel and Echo Klassik winner Prof. Joaquín Clerch. He has won prizes at guitar competitions, performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras in Latin America and the USA and worked as an Artist Manager. Driven by his ambition to continue his education, he then developed a career as a strategy consultant for technology companies in Silicon Valley.

The Liechtenstein pianist and composer Jürg Hanselmann is considered a profound expert on the piano and piano chamber music of his compatriot Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901). He has already recorded his complete piano works and the two piano concertos. Together with Rainer Wolters on the violin, he now presents the two violin sonatas, which are complemented here by an original composition. Jürg Hanselmann received his first music lessons at the Liechtensteiner Music School in Vaduz. His earliest compositions date from this time. At the age of seventeen, he entered the Bern Conservatory, Switzerland and studied piano with Albert Schneeberger and Kristina Steinegger, also Harmony and Counterpoint with Erwin Hochuli. He received his Teaching Diploma in the spring of 1980 and in the following summer, the Soloist Diploma with Distinction. To further his pianistic studies, he went to London to study with the Hungarian pianist Louis Kentner and to Frankfurt with the Russian pianist Irina Edelstein. He also participated in Master Classes held by the Beaux Arts Trio and Mieczieslaw Horszowski. From 1983, he studied composition and analysis for several years with Sandor Veress. Through Veress, Jürg Hanselmann can trace a musical pedigree back to his countryman Rheinberger. Veress was a pupil of Kodaly who studied with Hans (Janos) Koessler. Koessler himself was a pupil of Rheinberger.

Uta Weyand has had great international success giving numerous piano recitals and appearing with orchestras in most European countries, in Russia, Brazil, Cuba and the United States. She performed with such orchestras as the Orchestra of Madrid, those of Barcelona and Valencia, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the National Orchestra of Brazil, with such conductors as Jesús López Cobos, José Ramón Encinar, Enrique García Asensio, Manuel Galduf, Jac van Steen, Marc Tardue and Gabriel Chmura. Uta Weyand has received enthusiastic reviews for her recordings on various German labels. She makes her ARS PRODUKTION debut with Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major, accompanied by the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yves Abel. The production's all-French program is complemented by Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte and Georges Bizet's Symphony in C major.

“Alexandre Tansman was one of the most important Polish composers of the 20th century. He enjoyed an excellent reputation as a composer, conductor and pianist. His guitar works, mostly commissioned for Andrés Segovia, were an important element of his compositional output. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Marianne Tansman, the composer's daughter, for providing me with the master's manuscripts. In my interpretations I have always tried, within the limits of technical feasibility, to keep to the original version of the works without editorial changes.” (Tomasz Zawierucha) Tomasz Zawierucha has been teaching at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar and the Vorarlberg State Conservatoire, Austria. He is also a Visiting Artist at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. In 2014 Tomasz Zawierucha was appointed Professor for Guitar at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany.

The image of the wandering singer or the singing wanderer, a familiar metaphor for life itself, is translated in a new way on this album. The musical journey takes the listener from Spain to the Orient, reminding us how much oriental sounds have influenced Spanish music over the centuries. Ad Fontes was founded in 2010 under the name 'Le Elèments'. The group participated in several competitions and presentations, such as international Telemann Wettbewerb 2013 (Bärenreiter Urtext Award) and International Early Music Competition in l'Acquila (1st award and audience's award)), as well as IYAP presentation 2014. They were invited to give concerts in festivals as Young Euro Classics, Solisti acquilani, Schaffhauser Festspiele, Musik und Mensch, SEVICQ Brezice, Potsdamer Festspiele Sanssouci, Freunde Alter Musik Basel, among others. Since 2017 they organize their own concert season in Kartäuserkirche in Basel. They perform various repertoire on period instruments, written between 1550 and 1750.

Voilà, the ensemble 4.1! The only 'Piano Windtet' in the world: four wind soloists and one pianist dedicate themselves full of enthusiasm to this wonderful classical but neglected musical genre, which is mostly cultivated, if at all, by ad hoc ensembles. In addition to Beethoven's classic, a rarity by Herzogenberg and the world premiere recording of a new composition can be heard here. Their special communicative power and their intoxicating atmosphere on stage are repeatedly praised by critics and have become the hallmark of ensemble 4.1. The group consists of pianist Thomas Hoppe, oboist Jorg Schneider, clarinetist Alexander Glucksmann, bassoonist Christoph Knitt, and hornist Fritz Pahlmann.

Regarded as a luminous, elegant and extroverted artist, Judith Jáuregui has become one of today’s most captivating young pianists. She has already recorded works by diverse composers and periods: from Debussy, Liszt and Mompou to Albéniz, Granados and Falla or Scriabin. She now joins the catalogue of ARS PRODUKTION with an album that is her first live recording to be published and a repertoire to which she feels a special connection. Born in San Sebastian, Spain, she has been linked to different cultures since her childhood: with a Basque mother and a father who is Mexican by birth and French by adoption, Judith took her first musical steps in her hometown and would finish her studies in Munich, Germany, with the Russian maestro Vadim Suchanov.

The young Russian flutist Matvey Demin (*1993) is one of the most promising artists of his generation: among other things, he was the first ever to win the world-famous Tchaikovsky Competition in the woodwind category. He is also a prize winner of such competitions as international “Aeolus” competition, ARD International Music competition (Munich), international flute competition in Krakow, Unisa International music competition and many other competitions. Since the age of 20 Matvey has held a position of Co-Principal Solo flute in the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, where he works under the baton of Paavo Järvi, David Zinman, Bernhard Haitink and many other conductors. Together with his piano accompanist Gleb Koroleff, he presents himself here with a varied solo program that optimally demonstrates his impressive skills.

Astor Piazzolla is probably the best known composer of "Nuevo Tango" - that exciting combination of passion and melancholy, of Tango Argentino and classical music. Duo Praxedis also represents an "exciting combination" (quote International Piano Magazine) with its equally rare and tonally highly exciting instrumentation of harp and piano. The masculine-muscular aura of the concert grand piano in constant interplay with the feminine-sensual sound of the harp seem to be made for this music - a hitherto unheard-of tango experience, which you will not want to miss once you have heard the unique sound of Duo Praxedis!

Gold medal winners of the 2019 Vienna International Music Competition, the Trio Goldberg was founded when three key members of the Orchester Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (Liza Kerob - Concertmaster; Federico Hood – Principal Viola; Thierry Amadi - Principal Cello), rich with the diversity of their respective cultural backgrounds, joined forces to create this dynamic and eclectic ensemble. The Trio Goldberg frequently collaborates with prestigious musicians such as Jean Ferrandis, with whom they have recorded WA Mozart's flute quartets (Europe & Art), Matan Porat, Iddo Bar-Shaï, Luis Fernando Pérez, Georges Pludermacher and Shani Diluka. The ensemble performs in France as well as throughout Europe. It participates in well-known festivals such as' La Folle Journée de Nantes', 'La Folle Journée de Ekaterinbourg ', the Chaillol Festival, the Menton Festival, the Festival des Grandes Heures de Cluny, at the Orsay Museum, as well as in Vienna, Linz, Bratislava, Budapest and London. This is their second recording. On it they play different string trios and works by Tanejew, Francaix, Haydn and many more.

Kassel, the city in the heart of Germany, internationally known as the city of the world art exhibition "documenta", which takes place every five years, also attracted international attention in the field of music when the then General Music Director Ádám Fischer initiated the "Gustav Mahler Fest Kassel" in 1989. With the "Festspielorchester", an orchestra of its own quality and characteristics was created. In addition to the concertmaster Rainer Hocke of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the oboe and clarinet groups of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra were formed, whose instruments have special characteristics and thus a specific sound. The same applies to the horns, which play an important role in Mahler's music. The special string sound of musicians such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Prague, the orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera as well as the brass, especially trumpets, from German orchestras, supplemented by musicians from Brno, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam as well as from Frankfurt, Hanover, Cologne and Düsseldorf, gave Mahler's music a particularly adequate sound. Of course, the Kassel State Orchestra, with a total of 20 musicians, who took turns, played a major role in the festival orchestra.

The two sonatas by Nikolai Miaskowski (1881-1950), written in 1912 and 1920, show 'Scriabin' traits that could also be described as post-Romantic. Despite the time difference of almost one hundred years, the sonatas of the French composer Nicolas Bacri (*1961) from 2007-2011 correspond in their hyper-expressiveness almost perfectly with the works of Miaskowski. Born in Luxembourg in 1988, Sabine Weyer is a pianist who has been consistently praised by the international press over the last few years. Trained at first in her home country (Prix Supérieur at the Conservatory of Esch-sur-Alzette in 2007), then in France (CRR in Metz, prix de perfectionnement à l’unanimité du jury in the class of Bernard Lerouge in 2007) and finally in Brussels (Koninklijk Conservatorium, postmaster diploma in the class of Serbian pianist Alexandar Madzar), Weyer embarked on an international career at the end of her studies and continues to surprise listeners with the intensity, richness and clarity of her playing. She has recorded four albums, all praised by critics and recipients of awards (Supersonic Award for ‘Bach to the future’, Pasticcio prize from the Austrian radio ORF for ‘A light in the dark’, nominations for International Classical Music Awards and Opus Klassik in Germany).