The music of German composer Robert Kahn, who was also Johannes Brahms' contemporary, was nearly forgotten after World War II. Included on this disc are rarely recorded pieces performed by the Hohenstaufen ensemble, featuring two of Kahn's great granddaughters, Rahel and Sara Rilling.

Classical Music

Classical Music

His love for the works of Schubert led Ammiel Bushakevitz to the Art Song. He received mentorship in this field from notable singers including the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Thomas Quasthoff, Elly Ameling, Thomas Hampson, Matthias Goerne, Teresa Berganza and Brigitte Fassbaender. Born in Jerusalem, Israel and raised in South Africa, Ammiel Bushakevitz developed a special affinity for the music of Franz Schubert from an early age. He is a laureate of the International Franz Schubert Competition Dortmund and is a recipient of the International Schubert Institute Award in Vienna. Ammiel Bushkavitz performs regularly at notable venues across Europe, North America, Africa and Asia. Festival appearances include the festivals of Salzburg, Lucerne and Bayreuth, the Festival d'automne a Paris, the Festival Pontino di Latina in Italy, the Jerusalem Schubertiade, the Vancouver Chamber Music Series and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

So writes the 28 year-old Beethoven in 1798-1799 in a note to his trusted friend Baron Nikolaus Zmeskall, imploring him to ask their friend Karl Friedrich Amenda to send singer/guitarist acquaintance Gottfried Heinrich Mylich to visit him. Among his earliest friends in newly arrived Vienna, Beethoven had both personal and professional relationships with guitarists including Raimund von Wetzler, Austrian government official and musicologist Raphael Georg Kiesewetter, Countess Maria Wilhelmine von Thun. Besides these affable friendships, Beethoven also pursued love interests with women who had connections to the guitar, including Antonie Brentano, Therese Malfatti, Countess Maria Carolina Anna von Thun, and Regina Hitzelberger-Lang. Despite, or maybe because of Beethoven's acquaintance with casual guitarists, he did not compose for the guitar: perhaps his encroaching hearing loss did not enable him to value guitar performances, perhaps teh instrument was not sonorous enough for his interests, or perhaps he did not cultivate the direct personal associations with professional players necessary to master an unfamiliar medium. His four compositions for mandolin and harpsichord of 1796 are a natural resutl of his experience with string writing prompted by personal patronage. Alongside informal awareness of the guitar, professional virtuoso performers also moved within Beethoven's circle in immediate and indirect contact.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's piano works have made many a pianist into a renowned virtuoso, yet the composer himself could never have played them with anything like such brilliance. As the son of a mining engineer, described by his nurse as a "porcelain child" on account of his sensitive nature, he was never expected to make his living from music. His parents foresaw a career in the civil service, as befitted the son of a good bourgeois family. "He was undoubtedly very talented, had a fine sense of hearing and a good memory," wrote Rudolf K�ndinger, Tchaikovsky's piano teacher from childhood, in his diary, nevertheless noting: "One could not yet conclude, however, that he was one day to be a great pianist, let alone a famous composer."

Anton�n Dvor�k is undoubtedly the composer who, along with Bedrich Smetana (1824- 1884), brought Czech music to global prominence. It is worth noting that a quarter of Dvor�k's oeuvre consists of chamber music, an astonishing amount for a composer who was active in the second half of the 19th century. Dvor�k's four piano trios are, alongside his far more numerous string quartets, among the most significant chamber works he wrote. After the first two trios of 1875/76, which give an early indication of the composer's creative intensity, the trios presented here, namely op. 65 (1883) and op. 90 (1890/91), show him to be a fully accomplished master of this genre. The underlying sentiment of the four-movement Trio op. 65 in F minor might be described as somber, passionate and dramatic. This character is already evident in the opening idea, played by the strings in unison, a theme that then undergoes complex development and builds up to a first dramatic climax. The Mori Trio presents these works with vigor and aplomb.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Berlin Chamber Duo writes of their new release: "This album with it's Romantic-era programme has been recorded in dedication of our love of the viola and the music of Robert Schumann. The first ever recording on the viola of the Sonata in A minor op. 105 for violin and piano by Robert Schumann is truly a landmark for the viola repertoire and the listening public... The sonata is played on the viola using the same score as for the original violin part. This fact in turn means that the violist is faced with a special technical challenge, which is probably the reason why the sonata has never yet been recorded on the viola... The ideal complement to this sonata is a selection of Lieder by Robert Schumann, songs which can be beautifully interpreted on the viola..." The Berlin Chamber Duo is violist Mate Szucs, who is the principal solo violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and pianist Michele Yuki Gurdal, who has been performing throughout Europe since she was nine years old.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This album of Bach transcriptions ofr piano is the fourth recording of its kind featuring the pianis tAngelika Nebel and it will not be the last: this recording of twelve transcriptions is the first of two albums that will collectively run through each and every key in the same pattern as Das Wohltemperierte Clavier and thus form a kind of opus magnum. The artist once again presents transcriptions by arrangers from Germany and elsewhere. This is Nebel's way of paying a global tribute to the great Thomaskantor - and the pianist has once again written some arrangements of her own, just as she did for her previous release, Illuminationes.

"•Released as part of a new series called ""The Choir Project, the Dutch Choir Dekoor Close Harmony is one of the most famous choirs in the Netherlands. • Throughout the eleven songs on this program, some new, some covers, the listener will discover the vocal energy that has earned this young singing troupe such renown. • Dekoor lights up these songs, delivering the vocal fireworks with color, rhythmic richness and a “Happening” character."