Duo Gurfinkel writes of this new release: "The idea to record our debut [release] emerged when we met Maestro Evan Christ in Ingolstadt, where we performed two concerts together. We were also honored to perform together with Evan in Israel. Thanks to his suggestion of making the recording with the Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra, we are now privileged to hold our first [album] in our hands. The repertoire we have chosen is varied: these works have been close to our hearts for a long time. This [release] is the synthesis of our lifelong dedication and love for music. We are so thrilled to have finally reached one of the most significant stages in our lives!" In spite of their youth, Duo Gurfinkel- twin brothers Daniel and Alexander Gurfinkel- have already attracted international notice and are being mentioned in the same breath as world-renowned clarinetists.

According to a Greek myth, the voices of swans have an otherworldly beauty, and their song is a foreboding of death. Such ethereal beauty emerges in moments which are to be treasured and preserved wtih care. The two works on this release stem from two outstanding composers who, at the end of their lives and in thoroughly different contexts, produced creations of lasting value. Schubert's life came to an end at age 31, barely eighteen months after the death of Beethoven, whom he secretly revered as a model. He learned of Beethoven's death when he had just finished composing Winterreise, a cycle of chilling songs", as he described them. Schubert's friends later partially blamed the grim content of Winterreise for his early demise. Shostakovich wrote his Sonata for Viola and Piano within an extremely brief period of time. On June, 25 1975, Fyodor Druzhinin - the violist of the Beethoven Quartet, who were the composer's friends - received a telephone call from the Shostakovich, informing him that he was working on a viola sonata and wanted to clear up initial technical matters with him. Shostakovich's health had always been quite poor; by this time, after having suffered two heart attacks and a muscle disease, he was additionally weakened by years of fighting lung cancer. Shostakovich finished his score on July 5tha nd passed away on August 9th. Fyodor Druzhinin and Mikhail Muntyan premiered the work only a few weeks later on September 25th. The composer therefore never had the opportunity to hear what his work sounded like. Shostakovich's political outlook and his ambiguous attitude vis-à-vis the political system of the USSR have been much discussed; his music, however, remains clear and honest. He exposed the grotesque masks and masquerades of human society. In his compositions he chronicled his day and age, a period characterized by hypocrisy, fear, treason, unimaginable human vileness and an excessive cultivation of image on the part of those in power. Hi smusic is thus now as urgently appropriate as it ever was." (Pauline Sachse)

Classical Music

Classical Music

"For any violinist, the Brahms Concerto is a special challenge and a precious gem, a piece one works on for decades. I studied it more intesely for the first time when I was around 18 years old. We tackled the challenge of performing and recording without a conductor. Of course, when I otherwise perform this concerto with a doncutor, I intesely learn and think through the orchestra part in my head. It is a challenge I am aware of, and I thus probably would never had dared to perform this concerto without a conductor. I probably would not have dared to embark on this adventure with any other ensemble." - Antje Weithaas

Classical Music

Very few permanent ensembles of five string performers can be found on today's chamber music scene, despite the fact that the string quintet genre features a number of beautiful works by the likes of Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. The Bartholdy Quintet has been devoting itself to this wonderful sector of classical chamber music ever since it was founded in 2009. With it's debut release featuring Alexander von Zemlinsky's Two Movements for String Quintet and Anton Bruckner's Quintet in F Major, the ensemble is fulfilling it's desire to make relatively rare works in the genre known to a wider audience. "Long before we went into the recording studio, we had already been working intensely on these two pieces - we performed them often in public, with much pleasure", recalls violinist Ulf Schneider. "Each one of these works is outstanding in it's own right; the symphonic dimension in Bruckner's music and Zemlinsky's quite unusual work with a virtuoso final movement. Moreover, apart from such unique compositional traits, each of the composers had something very personal to say. That is what fascinates us teh most - and as we have gone on performing them in concert over the years, we have come to love these two quintets. Their inclusion as the two main works on our first release as a permanent string quintet was thus a matter of course."

Stepan Simonian writes: "Why Bach? Why Goldberg? Johann Sebastian Bach was a true "essence" of music: a composer who brought literally everything together in his output, bridging all periods from Gregorian chant almost all the way to Viennese Classicism. In his seven early keyboard toccatas we encounter a young man gifted with genius, enriched by a multitude of musical influences, and still tempted to adapt to the musical developments of his day... Musical cycles such as The Well-Tempered Clavier, The Musical Offering, or The Art of Fugue constitute the ne plus ultra in terms of Bach's mastery of instrumental polyphony. The Goldberg Variations, conversely, present a compendium of his skill in composing variations. Since this variation cycle is written for a two-manual harpsichord, we can assume that Bach himself regarded it as an important milestone in his art as a performer on that instrument. Whether this supposition be true or not, there is no doubt that the Goldberg Variations represent one of the most outstanding works in the entire musical repertoire... Each time I perform, hear, or study these variations, I uncover new dimensions. They are brimming with the finest nuances, implications, and emotionally charged associations. The familiar path to that familiar home remains the same path, but the way I walk down it becomes thoroughly different every time."

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Franz Xaver Ohnesorg writes of this new release "Vive la France! - That is the motto which stood as an emblem for the Ruhr Piano Festival in 2018, it's Anniversary Year. Commemorating the end of the First World War in 1918 and paying homage to DeBussy, who likewise passed away a century ago, we decided to place the Festival's annual focus on German-French friendship, an important political and cultural axis that has played a significant role in the history of music. I am therefore particularly pleased that this year's release highlights France as a great cultural nation by featuring the highly variegated, exhilarating repertoire of two composers who left an indelible mark on the late 19th century: Claude DeBussy and Camille Saint-Saens."

In this new album, Cathy Krier takes an original step and goes entirely against the grain of her previous programmatic approach. In her two most recent albums she had juxtaposed the apparently divergent styles of Rameau and Ligeti, or Liszt vs. Berg/Shoenberg, uncovering astounding new connections among them. The current release now takes the opposite path. At first glance, Claude Debussy- the inventor of musical Impressionism- and Karol Szymanowski- often called the 'Polish Impressionist'- would seem to have much in common. Both composers even use the same title in French: Masques (masks). Cathy Krier affirms, nevertheless, that she is much more interested in the differences one can observe between these two works written roughly during the same period. This listening experience is thus enriched thanks to a new, fascinating aesthetical perspective. "Krier steers her own path between sentimental and spiky, with a bright, forthright tone and an approach that underlines the music's depth to Schumann and Brahms." (Boston Globe)