This is the first solo album of the Mezzo Soprano Anke Vondung, who is travelling the world and the most prominent Opera Houses and Concert Halls. Two years ago, inspired by their shared love of Viennese music and visual arts at the turn of the 20th century, Anke and Christoph put together a vocal recital programme featuring lieder by Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler. This recording is based on that programme with the addition of the strikingly expressive early songs of Franz Schreker. As the investigated the repertoire more closely, they were fascinated to discover the degree of musical and biographical connections the composers shared - the many ways these five composers inspired and had a reciprocal influence on one another. The music of Gustav Mahler was the focal point around which all subsequent 'Viennese' compositions were centered therefore they chose to place Mahler's songs at the end of their selection. The performers on this disc say: 'Over a century ago - in Vienna in 1913 - Schoenberg conducted a concert featuring Mahler's Songs on the Death of Children and Zemlinsky's Four Orchestral Songs on poems by Maeterlinck, an evening that went down in history as the Skandalkonzert. Over a century later, we are glad to note that this music is now acknowledged as an integral part of the great European musical legacy.'

Today it has mostly been forgotten that one of the founding fathers of German music copyright, Hans Sommer, whose real name was Hans Friedrich August Zincken, was also a prolific composer. Although the close connection between music and the educated middle class was taken for granted, the act of composing- either as a dilettante or as a professional- was still considered a hazardous venture. Hardly anyone could devote himself or herself entirely to composition without additional income from performance or teaching. Sommer took his first composition lessons in the 1850s, while studying mathematics and physics. Finally, in 1881, at the age of 47, Sommer withdrew to devote himself entirely to his musical inclinations. These songs require a wide range in terms of pitch and dynamics, long breath, and a differentiated approach to the text that is not easy to combine with the long phrases and wide-ranging legato slurs, and Baritone Sebastian Noack has mastered these skills. This is the first full-length album of Sommer's lieder.

The act of thinking and composing in counterpoint- in fugues- has reigned as the supreme musical discipline ever since Western music emerged around the year 1200 from the shadows of purely oral transmission to be codified in writing, initially in mensural notation. Our seven-league-boot journey across the realm of fugue begins with the two earliest published German works in the genre for instrumental ensemble from the year 1602. The first of them has ethereal motifs which it rather cautiously explores, whereas the second is based on the folk song O Nachbar Roland, mein Herz ist voller Pein (which Samuel Scheidt arranged as a magnificent canzone for strings in 1621). Haussmann’s Fugae are written “for all kinds of instruments”: idiomatic passagework for violin is thus entirely absent here, and only emerged as a stylistic trait in the course of the 17th century. Alessandro Scarlatti is the composer of four sonatas that are to be performed senza cembalo, as he specifies, and which are often referred to as the first string quartets. The animated movements are complex counterpoint constructions; the middle movements are tortuous harmonic meanders brimming with ligature et durezze; the final movements are all short, ironic minuets with the two violin parts in unison.

Lars Vogt always had great fun with pieces that managed to say a lot with few notes, as opposed to those that use many notes to say very little. He often didn't feel attracted to truly virtuosic repertoire - unless it was a "stroke of genius" such as Liszt's Sonata in B Minor. The athletic aspect of piano playing held very little appeal to him, instead, he prefers a profound message and music that moves the soul. The pieces on this album are for adutls and children alike to play and listen to. Each of these gems contains such a rich variety of poetry, exuberance and expression. This release is intended to provide children with a version of this music played by someone who has cultivated a lifelong love of music in his profession.

The century was only twenty-one years old, and so was Ernst Krenek, when his Serenade op. 4 was premiered on 31 July 1921.�At first sight, it seems to cling stubbornly to the style of Krenek's teacher, Franz Schreker, and to Viennese Late Romanticism. It contains a whiff of Hugo Wolf's Italian Serenade.�Hans Gal's style remained rooted in the Vienna tradition of the "long" 19th century.�Penderecki: here we are dealing with a tranquil, subdued work that almost ventures into Schubertian confines

The missing final Four... with all the contrasts!!!�all complete now!!! "Volume I with sonatas 2, 4, and 9 was reviewed by Mr Magil (S/O 2023), who called them some of the very finest readings of these works; and we can extend these same words to Volume II" (American Record Guide March/April 2024). Antje Weithaas embarked on her journey through several creative periods of Beethoven's output in the company of one of the most versatile, sensitive pianists of our time: the Hungarian Denes Varjon.

“…Weithaas and Várjon have a great deal to say and are not afraid to say it, but their focus of interest is always and emphatically Beethoven – not themselves.” (MusicWeb Intern’l July 23).

Both highly in demand on a worldwide scale as unique, exceptional chamber music performers: Antje Weithaas and Dénes Várjon each ideally combine the highest degree of enthusiasm and precision: their energetic, passionate playing is the result of intense concentration and precision, combined with a large portion of musicality.

“In Antje Weithaas’s und Dénes Várjon’s complete edition of these sonatas in three volumes, each individual release is designed to illustrate those stages of artistic development (instead of featuring the works in strict chronological order). From the onset, Beethoven ascribed utter importance to the principle of dialogue between the two instruments, as we can infer from a letter he wrote to Artaria on 19 June 1793…
The current Vol. 2 release contrasts the third sonata (in E Flat Major) of the early Op. 12 group with the second and third sonatas of Op. 30. The CD begins with the C Minor Sonata Op. 30, which is undoubtedly one of the two most dramatic sonatas among all ten works in the same genre (the other one being the “Kreutzer” Sonata Op. 47).

The E Flat Major sonata is also the most dramatic one within Op. 12. On the other hand, the last sonata (G Major) in Op. 30 provides a contrast in the form of a cheerful “final dance” (Kehraus), a function it also fulfils on this CD in the wake of the E Flat Major Sonata Op. 12.

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Rachel Roberts reveals why many consider her one of the greatest violists of this time. Her match with Lars Vogt on piano is unmatched. Both artists consider the repertoire on this album to be the most important for viola and piano.

This release is Erwin Stein's chamber arrangement of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4. In 1921, Arnold Schoenberg organized a series of private concerts, performed by small ensembles. Schoenberg and Stein combined their ingenuity and created "sophisticated versions" of important orchestral works. These arrangements were usually for a few woodwinds, a string quintet, percussion and piano. Stein also added a harmonium, which was quite rare at the time but the organ adds a unique timbre to this arrangement.

Alexander Alyabyev enrolled in the Russian army when he was 25. As a calvary officer he took part in campaigns against Napoleon that took him all the way to Paris; he was badly wounded in the arm and transferred to the National Guard, where he became one of its best officers. Alyabyev had made himself a name in music salons as a composer of romanzas and brief pieces for piano prior to the Napoleonic War. After his retirement he was able to devote himself entirely to music and chose to live in Moscow. He was also known to be addicted to gambling and card games. Toward 1825 he was involved in a card game brawl where someone was killed. He was placed in jail for three years and finally sentenced to exile. From 1825 until the end of his life, Alyabyev remained under constant police supervision and was forbidden to perform in public. Alyabyev’s early works show his admiration for Beethoven, and he also wrote a great deal of salon music. His style was generally conservative and is often compared to early Schubert, particularly in view of his important art song output. In fact, Alyabyev is often nicknamed “the Russian Schubert.”

"The term 'fantasia', in music, mainly refers to a free type of structure. Throughout history, the genre has allosed composers to jot down their musical ideas directly, like an improvisation, just as they first spring to mind. The fantasia became a popular instrumental genre in the 1800's, when it started to feature the dreamy, 'phantastic' element even more prominently; the piano and its universe of polyphony likewise played an essential role. The fantasia was thus an ideal genre for Scumann, whose music I view as the quintessence of German High Romanticism. Schumann's music is full of expression and driven by passion; at the same time it is disarmingly honest and private. Its textural sonority is full of variety, yet it always remains decent and straightforward, never attempting to posture with easy, flashy, superficial effects or by adding purely virtuosic embellishments. In my imagination, this music often evokes placid romantic scenes imbued with good-naturedness and a certain vulnerability: people of the simple classes, courtly settings, flowery childish joys, or the secretly shared yearnings of two lovers. It is as if such figures or allegories were placed in the midst of mysterious landscapes, lovingly painted with an eye for detail, and impressively set to music. Schumann often used teh word "Fantasy" in the titles of his works - frequently as part of a compound noun, Fantasiestüc, or also sporadically Fantasietanz (dance). The music in such pieces is often of choice quality and profoundly expressive... (Eckardstein)

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In this great program of music, Daniel Raiskin and his Koblenz Orchestra prove they are at the highest standard, producing superb sound and very musical playing.

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