Secret Places is a hypnotic journey to the core of your soul, a musical picture book that lures the listener to the very depths of his or her powers of imagination. The works sketch unique contours with what seem like melodic brush strokes- each bar a step into unknown territory. Pulsating, fragile, poignant, wild too, dancing and full of joie de vivre. All of the compositions are recorded here for the first time in this form and all but "Hammers" by Nils Frahm were written for the Crossover Composition Award 2015. The Twiolins draw big audiences to concert halls worldwide as pioneers of the new "Progressive Classical Music" movement, whose trademark is unique repertoire for two violins- tonally sophisticated, employing outstanding harmonics and singularly dramatic effects.

The key aim of About the Classical Saxophone Play Along is to familiarize people with contemporary saxophone music. The second recording of all four works is dedicated solely to the piano part, leaving saxophonists scope for individual interpretation. This is informed through appreciation of the musical text as a coherent whole and by means of simultaneously close reading and attentive listening. Olga Salogina and Fabian Pablo Müller have been playing together for many years; over the course of long teaching careers they’ve dedicated themselves to helping people understand music.

From the start, it was literature and poetry which stimulated Schumann. His music is poetic, narrative and descriptive. Schumann preferred small forms, individual pieces that he often compiled into sets like the Intermezzi, Impromptus, Albumbletter and Kinderszenen, as well as the Fantasiestucke presented on this recording.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Baroque and Blue is a quartet dedicated to the furtherance of modern music, and consists of flutist Christiane Meininger, pianist Rainer Gepp, bassist Roger Goldberg, and percussionist Enno Lange. Meininger says of this album, “With this CD we’re telling stories.” One of the stories this album tells is the ensemble’s friendship with composer Alan Weinberg, who composed the title track on this release. Other composers featured on this album include Rainer Lischka and Mike Mower.

While many historic editions focus on a performer, a less obvious but sometimes more artistically resonant choice is to focus on a conductor, one of those musical minds which shapes so much of what we hear. The Genter Wand Edition focuses on that great personality of the German music world, and this recording of Wand over the NDR Sinfonie Orchester and Jorge Bolet in his final years is filled with great musical moments. Wand once said "The older one gets, the clearer one's vision of perfection becomes," a sentiment befitting his masterful interpretation of Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Without denying its Classical and Romantic models (including Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, and Franz Schubert), the F minor Symphony shows a refined grasp of formal, dynamic, and structural logic and demonstrates Bruckner’s extraordinary creative powers in this, his first symphonic work. Formal criteria like repeating the exposition before the development in the outer movements, or Beethoven-like figurations in the second thematic block of the Andante, point to Classical influences, while in the development of the first movement, besides the classically-influenced motivic and thematic treatment, there are clearly Romantic tendencies recalling Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and Weber’s opera Der Freischutz. Here we already see Bruckner’s great skill in incorporating apparently foreign material into his thematic development- inconspicuously and fruitfully, and without making obvious citations- a quality that may well derive from his experience improvising at the organ.

The title of the Meininger Trio’s new CD is “Lockrufe” [“mating calls”]. And the music it contains can indeed entice you to delve into a world of sound which, at times jazzy and at times more classical, floats whimsically between the Occident and the Far East. Noted for demonstrating outstanding ensemble cohesion and a distinctive trio timbre, The Meininger Trio repeatedly delight audiences with imaginative concert programs that, alongside Classical and Romantic works, comprise original and rich modern works that are the result of lively, creative collaboration with contemporary composers.

Ljubka Biagioni, the 2002 winner of the European Union's Franco Capuana International Competition for Conductors, was born into the family of an Italian politician in Rome. After receiving a classical education at a grammar school and intensive piano tuition, she won a scholarship to study music theory at the National Academy of Music in Sofia, where she graduated with distinction as a choral and orchestral conductor. After graduating, she undertook further studies with Karl �sterreicher in Varna, Bulgaria, Norbert Balatsch and Leonard Bernstein at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome and Ferdinand Leitner and Valery Gergiev at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In 1997, her career significantly benefited from working with Ilya Musin and Valery Gergiev in Rotterdam. She has been principal conductor of Sofia Symphonics since 2013. Her status as one of Sofia's great musical figures is confirmed by the nigh on euphoric reactions to the most recent performance of her Traviata at the National Palace of Culture.

Classical Music