On this CD, alongside the well-known late Brahms piano masterworks opera 117, 118 and 119 - famous for their musical balance and quasi Zen-like distillation of the composer's life experiences - are the quite different small pieces from Brahms' early years: The Album blatt in A Minor, discovered in 2012 and a brief canon from 1864 shows the young composer's early mastery, while the Sarabande and Gavotte of 1855 were to be included in a planned suite. - Sophie-Mayuko Vetter is a regular guest on many international stages, performing an extensive repertoire ranging from early baroque to avantgarde.

This album is the seventh installment in Gerhard Oppitz's survey of the piano music of Franz Schubert, featuring his Piano Sonata No. 4 in A minor, D537 (1817), considered to be the composer's first successful essay in this genre. Gerhard Oppitz is universally recognized as one of the leading exponents of German Romanticism and is the ideal interpreter for these works. His intelligent, sensitive and understated interpretations make an ideal advocate for the music of Schubert.

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Two early Beethoven works from op. 18 frame the stormy 'Quartetto serioso' op 95. The Austrian Minetti Quartet, one of the most exciting young string quartets, have played concerts in major halls around the world. The follow up to their first two hanssler CLASSIC releases the unforced naturalness and multifaceted articulation of these four musicians is presented to fullest advantage in these expressive works, once again showcasing the outstanding musicianship of this young quartet.

Gerhard Oppitz is praised worldwide as a performer of Romantic piano works, especially those by German composers. His tenth installment of complete piano works of Schubert contains the famous Wanderer Fantasy and some rarely performed Variations. Oppitz achieves a momentous emotional climax in this performance.

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The Staatskapelle Dresden unquestionably belongs to the international elite of orchestras. Here, the outstanding wind soloists of this vaunted orchestra, together with the Munich-based pianist Margarita Höhenrieder, perform two special works from the Viennese classical repertoire: Mozart's Quintet for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano in E flat major, K. 452, and the Quintet in E flat major, Op. 16 by Beethoven. As a very special encore, oboist Bernd Schober has edited the beloved Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 for wind quintet and piano.

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Gerhard Oppitz is among the most famous living exponents of the German Romantic piano music. He loves performing the great cyclical works such as Beethoven or Schubert in multi-night marathons. Following his widely acclaimed recording of the 32 Beethoven sonatas, he is now exploring the lyrical world of Franz Schubert's works for piano, this being the 8th volume.

Schwerin Brass Collegium's new release features a mixture of well-known carols and traditional arrangements of Renaissance and Baroque seasonal music. Also included are tasteful transcriptions of popular works such as Corelli's Christmas Concerto as well as interludes for the organ, played by the renowned organist Jan Ernst.

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