About these quartets, which were written in their time for lovers and which today are a challenge even for the best musicians, one could put the words with which Mozart summed up the essence of his concerts in his letter of 28 December 1782: "They are very brilliant, pleasant in the ears, of course, without falling into emptiness, here and there even connoisseurs can receive satisfaction alone, but in such a way that those who do not know must be satisfied with them, without knowing why.'' In short: the most beautiful chamber music "for connoisseurs and lovers", played by the wonderful musicians Karel Valter (transverse flute), Pablo Valetti (violin), Peter Biely (viola) and Petr Skalka (cello).

When female composers created their many piano miniatures in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was not because they were unable to express themselves in larger forms. Rather, it was one of the few genres to be granted to them by their male competitors. But they knew how to make a virtue out of necessity, as Viviane Goergen impressively shows here. "As rich in nuances as presented here by the Luxembourg-Swiss pianist Viviane Goergen, each of these miniatures becomes a treasure of it's own. A sense of inner calm characterizes these interpretations, which concentrate entirely on musical expression. Goergen finds in the miniatures the right colors and nuances to bring the distinctive moods of the music to be heard. With a fine, clear attack, differentiation of dynamics and transparency of musical structure, the pianist manages to keep the listener's interest through the whole program." (Remy Franck, Pizzicato)

Arthur Lourie (1892-1966) is one of the most important representatives of the Russian avant-garde, even though he unfortunately never received the appropriate attention due to emigration, among other things. While his early piano pieces were still linked to Scriabin's late work, the composer soon developed completely new forms of musical discourse, including graphic notation. Christian Erny assembled a roughly hour-long selection of works that offer a foray into the innovative and fascinating world of Arthur Lourie. Christian Erny (b. 1988) is a young musician of high versatility. He is an active pianist and piano pedagogue as well as founder and conductor of the vocal ensemble The Zurich Chamber Singers. As an assistant conductor, he has been working for the Winterthur Conservatory Chamber Choir since 2012. He also is former artistic director of the series Conzerte Freulerpalast in Glarus.

Full of adventure, I Pizzicanti set about making this album a reality. They came up with the idea for the project together with C�line Pasche, with whom the musicians share a love of the Italiano style. After lots of searching and playing the original repertoire with recorder, they were able to capture the spirit of this Italian style with the artistic means of historical transcription. As members of the new generation of upcoming artists, the musicians Nadja & Chani Lesaulnier, Rafael Becerra and Jonathan Pesek founded the group I Pizzicanti in the year 2009. I Pizzicanti, with all it's members being graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, is perpetuating the movement of rediscovery of the 17th, 18th and 19th century repertoire by using the techniques of the historically informed performance practice. The common ground of shared aesthetic principles allows I Pizzicanti to pursue a research for liberty, creativity and spontaneity while paying due respect to the integrity of the historical masterpieces. In a productive dialogue process the dynamics of the group evolve around the distinct personalities of it's members. I Pizzicanti is devoted to the recreation and promotion of baroque musical practice like the proficient playing of several instruments and the art of transcription.

Even composers such as Rossini and Verdi revered and valued Johann Simon Mayr (1763-1845) highly. Known for a long time only as Donizetti's teacher, his oeuvre has experienced a well-deserved renaissance in recent years. The Belgian-Israeli pianist Edna Stern and the Georgisches Kammerorchester (Chamber Orchestra) Ingolstadt under Ruben Gazarian present piano concertos nos. 1 & 2. Intellectual curiosity, a questing spirit and an uncompromising rigorousness in the service of music are the three major aspects of the personality of Edna Stern and of her conception of musical interpretation. Her repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach and his son Carl Philipp Emanuel to Luciano Berio and contemporary composers, playing on period instruments as on modern ones. She has been invited to play recitals and chamber music at the Festivals la Roque d'Anthéron, Colmar, MDR, Ludiwigsburg Festsspiele, at the "Moments Musicaux" of Châtelet or at the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Brussels. She has also appeared, both with an orchestra and in solo recitals, at the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and at the Tonhalle of Zürich. She has also played chamber music with the quartets Ebène and Lotus, The Oxalys ensemble, as well as with Alban Gerhardt, Magali Mosnier, Alexandre Tharaud and the violinist Amandine Beyer.

Enrique Granados' music is full of an emotion and tenderness that rightly elevates him to the status of a national monument of the same rank as Isaac Albéniz or Francisco Goya, whom he adored. The Frenchwoman Myriam Barbaux-Cohen and the Spaniard Granados: Two souls who understand each other blindly meet here and harmonize even over the temporal separation of a century. Myriam Barbaux-Cohen began learning piano in the city of La Rochelle. Soon after she was awarded First Prizes in Chamber Music and Piano from the Conservatory of Genevilliers. She continued her studies with Muza Rubackyte in the Russian Conservatory Serge Rachmaninoff in Paris. Myriam performs regularly at official events at the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, and enjoys a busy career as a piano accompanist.

The Lithuanian pianist Ieva�Dudaite�combines in her recording two composers who have each cultivated an unmistakable personal style that has made them protagonists of their respective times and musical spheres. By confronting Chopin's works with the suggestive minimalist pieces of Yann�Tiersen, she makes the connections between the two composers tangible. Ieva�Dudaite�is one of the most promising Lithuanian pianists of her generation, with a lengthy record of concerts across the globe, including some of the world's most prestigious venues, such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam,�Muziekgebouw�Eindhoven,�TivoliVredenburg�Utrecht,�DeSingel�Antwerp, and performances in Italy, Germany, Ukraine, Mexico,�the UK, and Spain. She played at some of the most renowned music festivals, including Grenoble Music Festival 2008, Trieste Music Festival 2010, Aurora Chamber Music Festival Sweden 2015, and Oxford Piano Festival 2016.�Dudaite's�concerts have been broadcast by Lithuanian, Russian, and Dutch Radio and Television.

Every piece on this album by pianist Romain�Nosbaum�has a reference to the Portuguese word 'Saudades'. It embodies the desire for a place (Adios a Cuba, Asturias), the soul, the human being (Alma�Brasiliera) or popular manifestations. The music usually has a close connection to dance and is very much connected to the human emotional world. Romain�Nosbaum�is an individualist among the pianists of his generation. Without airs and graces, but with modesty and passionate devotion, he is solely focused on music. Both the grand gesture and sheer brilliancy have no meaning to him - instead, his playing stands out through intelligence, subtle individuality and technical perfection. The subtlety and immediacy of his pianistics encourage Romain's repertoire, which focuses on the romantic piano literature as well as music of contemporary composers. A universal interest in 'tradition and innovation' expresses itself not only�soloistically, but also through his activities as a passionate chamber musician. Thus, he regularly performs as a vocal accompanist with artists such as his sister V�ronique. He is also a member of the Random Trio, which comes with the colorful instrumentation of flute, violoncello, and piano. Moreover, Romain is very involved in interdisciplinary projects such as Claude Mangen's staging of Schubert's�Winterreise, Giorgio Mancini's live choreography A�nima, or the musical readings of texts by�Vaslav�Nijinsky and Michel Houellebecq together with actor Christian Berkel and pianist Kevin�Tamanini.

The pianist Anastasia Yasko presents a selection of outstanding Russian piano sonatas from Soviet times. A handful of little known works by Prokofiev, Sviridov, Feinberg and Weinberg will give us a varied picture of the period. Here, different stylistic directions of new music as well as the characteristics of the Russian musical tradition are distinctly represented. Anastasia Yasko was born in Kursk, Russia. Since four years old she has been playing the piano. She studied the piano at the Moscow Gnessin Special Music School with Tatiana Shklovskaya and at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Vera Gornostaeva. From 2014 to 2017 she studied at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Rolf Plagge and since 2018 she is studying with Jacques Rouvier and also working as a teaching assistant of Rolf Plagge. Anastasia had recitals in Russia, the Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, France and Japan.

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).

Since 1071, the St. Florianer Sängerknaben (St. Florian Boys' Choir) has been one of the most traditional of the renowned boys' choirs in Europe, to which Anton Bruckner belonged at the time. For centuries, one of the core tasks of the choir has been to provide music for the church services at St. Florian's Abbey in Linz, but today the boys also give concerts all over the world, always with overwhelming success. The album with well-known, but also lesser-known international Christmas carols contains recordings with their long-time director Franz Farnberger, which were made between 1998 and 2021 and thus vividly document the consistently high level of this boys' choir.

Argentine-born pianist Aquiles Delle Vigne is one of the most renowned students of the legendary Claudio Arrau, who taught him as a 17-year-old, and looks back on an extraordinary career himself. To this day, he travels tirelessly on all continents. He is particularly interested in Franz Liszt, whose Années de Pèlerinage (Pilgrimage Years) he records here on 4 albums - along with jewels such as Gondoliera / Canzone / Tarantella / Consolations and the Ballade No. 2. Aquiles Delle Vigne, born in Argentine in 1946 from Italian parents, is recognized as one of the top piano professors in the world. He was Distinguished Professor at the Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam and at the École Normale de Musique de Paris “Alfred Cortot”, Visiting Professor at the Northern College of Music in Manchester –following Vlado Perlemuter–, at the Normal University of Taipei, at the Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg for 25 years, and gave masterclasses in more than 40 countries, above all at Moscow and Saint-Petersburg Conservatories, Manhattan School (invited by Solomon Mikowski) of New York, Juilliard School (invited by Oxana Yablonskaya), Toho University of Tokyo, and Munich University.

Metamorphoses run through nature, history and society. Transformation is one of the leitmotifs of our life, art and culture. For the album ‘Metamorphosen’, flutist Anette Maiburg and her ensemble (Maiburg Ensemble) were also interested in using arrangements to look at works from the classical repertoire and rarities from a different perspective. Whether Anette Maiburg is infusing classical soundscapes with glowing lyricism, luxuriating in the melancholy of a French chanson or swaying with dance-like suppleness in samba rhythm, her flute always sounds exciting, sensuous and colourful. Anette Maiburg is an elegant soloist and sensitive ensemble player and thus a virtuoso on her instrument but more besides. She is a true artist with a zest for experimentation, who moves with the surefootedness of a sleepwalker across the boundaries of genre and style.

On this new release, Nadège Rochat performs Antonín Dvorák's Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104, and André Caplet's mystically spiritualized Épiphanie, op. 22, together with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Benjamin Levy. Nadège Rochat is a distinguished expressive voice among young cellists. Besides her wide-ranging musical interests in baroque, classical and romantic repertoire, she likes to explore forgotten composers, world music and contemporary pieces. She started to play the cello at the age of four and first studied in Geneva, then in Cologne with Maria Kliegel. She attended master classes with Heinrich Schiff and Anner Bijlsma among others, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music under Robert Cohen where she now has a teaching assignment. She won several first prizes in Swiss, German and British competitions and won twice the Swiss SUISA prize for the interpretation of contemporary music.

Boris Bloch writes: “This release is called "Aveu passionné.” On the one hand because of the Tchaikovsky piece with the same title (in English "Passionate Confession"), on the other hand because of my deepest connection to Russian music, especially Russian opera, and last but not least because of my great love for the singer Galina Vischnevskaya. It may not seem obvious at first glance, but on closer inspection of the pieces selected here, this connection can be better understood. For Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, but also Glinka and Tchaikovsky are first and foremost opera composers. Every time I perform their music on the piano, the whole cosmos of their operas is before my eyes. Since I have been fortunate enough to conduct some of these great operas myself - for example, Glinka's "Life for the Tsar", Dargomyshsky's "The Stone Guest", Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov", Borodin's "Prince Igor", as well as some operas by Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky - they form for me the elixir of life that always fires my imagination.”

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.

During their long study of the works of the composer Richard Mico (1590-1661), the musicians of the Concerto di Viole ensemble developed characteristic images and associations that make each of the pavanes and fantasies unique to them. Following the tradition of Mico's contemporaries, they have therefore given the pieces new titles to inspire the listeners' imagination. The Ensemble Concerto di Viole was founded in Basle in 1989 and has since then been playing with almost the same lineup. The four permanent members Arno Jochem, Brian Franklin, Brigitte Gasser and Rebeka Ruso have studied at the schola Cantorum Basiliensis at different times and also perform with various different ensembles.

The piano works of Alexander Scriabin, gathered on the newest release by Konstantin Semilakov, allow us to trace the development of his musical language through the chronological order of their composition. Starting from an early phase influenced by 19th century music, it gradually reveals a groundbreaking harmonic system that is no longer based on major-minor tonal connections. Born in Riga in 1984, pianist Konstantin Semilakovs is laureate of the First Prize of the International Piano Competition in Porto, Portugal and prizewinner of the Competition for Young Pianists Ettlingen, Germany. Since 2018 he is appointed professor of piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He is passionate about researching the phenomenon of 'colour' in the classical piano repertoire and synaesthetic performing of works by the composers Olivier Messiaen and Alexander Scriabin.

“Schubert's Winterreise was present for both of us very early in our lives. Daniel keeps telling me how he sat at the piano with his grandfather and played "Der Leiermann". We were fascinated by this work, which seemed to know so much about what we felt and whose story was somehow our story. The negation of the physical in song singing and the wish of the guards of the genre to use only the voice for expression were always suspicious to me and I wanted to find out what expressive possibilities Schubert's songs reveal once you dare to give up the format that has been in use since the 1950s. It was clear to us that we would not only find approval, but we were willing to take this risk. […] And in the end we arrived back at the beginning - with the music of Schubert and the poems of Wilhelm Müller. For despite all our search for a new format, we always wanted to be faithful to the text. And that's why we rehearsed for many hours during this time, listened to our concert recordings, argued and struggled for every note, every bar and every word. We discovered how wild, expressive, desperate but also hopeful, melancholic and quiet Schubert's winter journey is. And over the years an interpretation matured which we have now recorded on this album with sound engineer Franz Schaden near Vienna. It is not our last word on the winter journey, only a snapshot.” (Johannes Held)

“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.

Violina Petrychenko is very authentically committed to making Ukrainian music and culture better known. 'Winter Whispers / Ukrainian Piano Stories' is a musical journey to her homeland, where memories of the old traditions of Christmas caroling are preserved. Most of the pieces are recorded for the first time, which makes the release quite unique.

As a cellist, you inevitably come across Astor Piazzolla's Grand Tango, his only original composition for cello and piano. I was immediately enchanted. Some time later, I travelled to Caracas for concerts with the Simon Bolivar Orchestra and met the famous composer Federico Ruiz. He was immediately prepared to arrange Piazzolla's "Adios Nonino" for cello and piano for me. Each subsequent tango drew me deeper and deeper into this cosmos. From this idea of combining South American temperament with European depth and my classical conception of sound, the CD programme Pasión Tango for cello and piano was finally created. The programme was enthusiastically received in live concerts in many countries, from Europe, Japan, and China to North and South America. The next step was a logical continuation: to play tangos with the cello again, but with a classical orchestra instead of the piano, in order to explore the tonal and emotional potential of this repertoire even more deeply - the result is Pasión Tango - el Gran. Friedrich Kleinhapl

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

I have always been fascinated by musical settings of literature. This is the background to this project. Transcriptions of literary or musical models are also a favourite topic of discussion with my concert audiences.

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.