Walter Arlen (b. 1920) is one of the last living composers of the generation the Nazis sought to extinguish. He has always been a composer of the small form and has written tonal music. Apart from works like Die letzte Blaue for piano solo (Monotypes, Mementos), this double CD by the Polish-Canadian pianist Daniel Wnukowski also contains works for piano and violin (Daniel Hope) and songs for soprano (Rebecca Nelsen) and baritone (Christian Immler). A unique feature is the three-part work ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ for piano and metronome, written in 1995 after a visit to Auschwitz.

The young and aspiring Trio Früstück presents its versatility on their debut CD, underlining its musical maturity both in Haydn’s Piano Trio No. 26 in C minor and in Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor op. 101. + Apart from prizes at international competitions, the three musicians - Clara Frühstück, piano, Maria Sawerthal, violin, and Sophie Abraham, cello - can already look back on a number of works dedicated especially to their ensemble by contemporary composers, such as the Olivier Messiaen-inspired Caprice (VI) ‘mosaïque’ for piano trio by Thomas Wally (b. 1981, Vienna).

Classical Music

Classical Music

The debut of Austrian cellist Thomas Auner accompanied by pianist Irina Auner take us through the world takes us on a musical journey through the world of dance, both explicit and implied. From Piazzolla to Dvorak and Johannes Brahms, Ravel to Cassad�, Granados' to de Falla. Tchaikovsky, Bach through von Weber; this celebration of dance and music through time distinguished by the virtuosity of both Auners makes this an auspicious debut.

Classical Music

Classical Music

� The poem cycle Canto General by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, about Latin America's struggle against colonialism, is a protest against lethargy and feelings of impotence by drawing on the roots, making historical contexts transparent and restoring man's own possibilities of development in awareness. � Hence, the Canto General has become a universal work with the message: "a different world is possible!" � Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis arranged parts of the poem cycle into an Oratorio for Two Solo Voices with a Mixed Choir and Orchestra. � This recording by the Choir of Erste Bank, supported by Protestant Choirs from Vienna, Lower Austria and Styria (choir master: Sybille von Both), soloists Julia Schilinski, mezzo soprano, and Sergio Cattaneo, baritone, and the Orquesta de nuestra tierra is conducted by Leopold Griessler.

"•Intensive studies of the autographs of Mozart's works have influenced the Vienna-born violinist Daniel Auner in his interpretation of Mozart’s chamber music. • With the pianist Robin Green, Auner performs research on the operatic element in this really ‘absolute’ music: special libretti were written for the individual sonatas, stories and situations related and arias sung, resulting in a recording focusing on the dialogue between the musicians and the dialogue with Mozart."

Classical Music

Salzburg violinist Thomas Albertus Irnberger, recently sought after in Israel by their most prominent orchestras, launches his latest recording with Jerusalem Symphony and conductor Doron Salomon. Felix Mendelssohn’s violin concerto in e, Op. 64 and Niels Gade’s violin concerto in d, Op. 56, whose general familiarity could not be more diverging, nevertheless have common ground in musical design as well as in personal and artistic matters: Gade, a close friend of Mendelssohn, substituted and later succeeded him in the position of Leipzig Gewandhaus chief conductor.

The Japanese pianist Yumiko Matsuda devotes her debut Gamola CD to the main representatives of Viennese Classicism: Joseph Haydn’s Sonata in E flat major, Hob.XVI: 49, the Sonata in F major, KV 332 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, op 27/2 ‘Moonlight’ by Ludwig van Beethoven. Franz Schubert, who together with ‘late’ Beethoven is considered a trailblazer to Romanticism and its first representative, is here represented by his Sonata in A major, D 664, which closes this recording.

The opening of the second part of the complete recordings of Beethovens Violin Sonatas by Thomas Albertus Irnberger and Michael Korstick could hardly be any more energetic than with the Sonata No. 8 in G major op. 30/3. Following the initial exuberance, the performers flatter with more gentle tones, not least in the lyrically-dreamy second movement, which can even be inferred by the tempo /mood indication, which states Tempo di Menuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso. Beethovens first Sonatas for violin and piano op. 12/1-3, composed during the years 1797/1798, contain despite their early date of creation and formal stylistic accordance to Mozarts ideal unmistakable elements of his later composition style, which challenged his contemporaries' critical taste accordingly.

The internationally much sought-after bass-baritone Ulf Bästlein continues his series of recordings dedicated to individual poets and in his new CD devotes himself to the most varied settings of texts by Friedrich Hebbel. In conjunction with the pianist Sascha El Mouissi, he selected songs by composers such as Schumann, Liszt Brahms and Peter Cornelius, all of whom Hebbel met in Vienna, as well as works from later years, by Wolf, Pfitzner, Walter Courvoisier, Emil Matthiesen, Felix Draeseke, Max Schillings, Walter Braunfels and Othmar Schoeck up to Alban Berg.

Classical Music