The release at hand presents musical portraits of two influential composers of the Baroque era through a selection from their oeuvre for violin and harpsichord: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644 – 1709) and Georg Muffat (1653 – 1704). Their first meeting in Salzburg was unfortunately not documented. However, it is known that both talents arrived with differing previous musical experiences before spending years in the service of the Archdiocese of Salzburg. Thanks to economic growth and financial strength in this sovereign Catholic principality, all the arts, including music, enjoyed considerable support. Like in all other Baroque centers, music was an integral part of courtly representation, and in Salzburg, it also became an important channel of communication for the Counter-Reformation.

A fabulous violinist, Biber preferred his favorite instrument in his compositions and wrote two sonata collections that belong to the basic repertoire of Baroque solo literature: the “Rosenkranz” or “Mystery” sonatas (c. 1674) and the Violin Sonatas (1681). Two pieces from each of these collections can be heard on the album at hand, rounded off with a passacaglia from Georg Muffat’s collection “Apparatus Musico-Organisticus”, which holds as much significance for Baroque keyboard literature as Biber’s collections for the violin mentioned above, and last but not least a unique piece: Muffat’s only surviving violin sonata. The instruments that meet in this recording come from two worlds: Flóra Fábri performs on a harpsichord built in 2015 by Detmar Hungerberg according to Italian models; the violin played by Dóra Szilágyi was built in 1765 by Sebastian Klotz in Mittenwald.

The program idea for this album came about after several exciting discoveries in archives of 19th-century organ music were made. As a result, five of the seven composers represented are directly related to the 19th-century organ scene in Stralsund: August Wilhelm Bach, Robert Dornheckter, Friedrich Wilhelm Franke, Rudolf Looks and Georg Riemenschneider. Matthias Pech can be heard playing the Organ in St. Nikolai in Stralsund, built by Carl August Buchholz, on this recording and has been active at this instrument since 2003. Few composers from the romantic period of organ music are truly well known today, and only gradually have the works of these composers become accessible and well known. The congenial instrument for their works as well as for those by the great Romantics Felix Mendelssohn and Carl Loewe is the organ in St. Nikolai, built by Carl August Buchholz between 1838 and 1841. Its restoration and reconstruction by the organ builders Wegscheider and Klais between 2003 and 2006 was made possible by the large, surviving sister organ in the Black Church in the Transylvanian city of Brasov, Romania, which Buchholz completed in 1839. Today, the "little sister" in Stralsund once again presents a convincing tonal impression of early German Romanticism. It is still steeped in the tradition of the late Baroque period, but at the same time points far into the Romantic period and is one of the largest surviving German organs from the period between 1800 and 1850.

Under the title “Into The Light”, this album brings together organ works recorded on all five organs in Bremen Cathedral played by Cathedral Organist Stephan Leuthold. Since 2002, a single-manual instrument with pedal has been available in the cathedral’s high choir for the musical accompaniment of weddings, communion services and concerts, built by the organ builder Kristian Wegscheider from Dresden. The sound is based on the Saxon organ building of the 18th and early 19th century in the tradition of Gottfried Silbermann. In the east crypt, there is now a small organ built in 1991 by Gerrit Klop from Garderen in Holland. This instrument was built as an “organo di legno” (with exclusively wooden pipes) in the Italian Renaissance style. Bremen Cathedral obtained its first “Bach organ”, as it is known, in 1939. During the war and in the post-war years, the instrument was badly damaged and was replaced in 1966 by a new organ from the firm Gebr. Van Vulpen (Utrecht). This organ stands in a massive oak case on the east wall of the north nave. The Silbermann organ was probably built in the winter of 1732/33. It was already standing in the village church in Etzdorf / Saxony in 1734. The Bremen Cathedral cantor Richard Liesche, born near Dresden, bought the instrument for Bremen Cathedral. Restoration by Kristian Wegscheider, Dresden began in 1993. Today, almost 75 % of the pipe material originating from Silbermann can be found in the organ.

For his debut album, the Leipzig-based pianist Hannes Pohlit has recorded rare works of the virtuoso piano-repertoire on the Blthner grand piano. The recordings took place in 2021 in the Media Campus Villa Ida (Leipzig) and were sponsored by the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig. Hans Werner Henze's (1926 2012) "Lucy Escott Variations", dedicated to the memory of a historical opera-singer, pay homage to the elegance of the Italian Belcanto. George Enescu's (1881 1955) first Piano Sonata explores the dark colors of Romanian soul-landscapes. Franz Liszt's (1811 1886) most famous organ work "Fantasy and Fugue on the choral 'Ad nos, ad salutarem undam'" was performed at the inauguration of the great organ in the Merseburg Cathedral. In the transcription for piano by Ferruccio Busoni (1866 1924), the pianist shows the great variations of timbres Blthner Aliquot grand piano can provide, from the highly expressive fantasy to the roaring fugue, and in the meditative Adagio gives space for the warm, vocal timbres of the instrument.

This 2-album set presents the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie, led by Jan Michael Horstmann, performing works by previously ostracized composers. The Lichterfeld Foundation of Petra and Ralph-Robert Lichterfeld is committed to ensuring that works by composers who were ostracized find their place in current concert programming. Their project "EchoSpore" lists registers of these composers, yet today many people are unaware of them. To ensure that the rediscovery of these hidden musical gems is not left to a single concert experience, the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie has added works by previously "ostracized" composers to each of its "Festliche cammerphilharmonische Concerte" (Festive Chamber Philharmonic Concerts).

This debut album of Austrian violinist Nina Pohn presents seven of the sonatas from Codex 726 of the Vienna Minorite Convent (Nos. 81 to 87), all of which are premiere recordings apart from Nos. 82 and 87. Johann Jakob Walther is the author of Sonata No. 83, and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber of Sonata No. 84; the other sonatas are anonymous. In light of Biber's outstanding role in the history of scordatura on the violin, it is remarkable that no scordatura is included in Sonata No. 84. Here, scordatura is only required in the anonymous sonatas No. 81 in A major and No. 85 in A minor. These recordings took place in the church St. Anna in Steinbruch (Upper Austria). Its historical, single manual organ, built in 1726 by the Linz organ builder Josef Richter, is perfectly suited for this music. In the context of historical performance techniques, four of the seven sonatas were recorded with the violin resting below the collar bone. That said, all were performed using the early baroque bow grip.

Typical music of the late 18th century. Stilistic between late baroque and early classicism; this wonderful entertaining music was recorded catching the pure sound of the concert room in Schloss Kochberg

In the Christ Church in Jerusalem; the harpsichordist David Shemer – one of the leading figures of the Early Music scene in his home country Israel – has done a full recording of this work which is now available on a 2-CD. The instrument used in this recording – a 2001 harpsichord of Franco-Flemish type by Martin Skowroneck of Bremen – is tuned to a’ = 392 Hz (a whole step below the “modern” a’). This pitch; one of the several that were practiced in Bach’s day; gives the instrument a particularly dark; mellow sound. For each Partita; a specific tuning system has been chosen; each system best suited to the key and character of a particular piece.

The “Alpine Symphony” by Richard Strauss is one of the crucial symphonic works of the early 20th century. Although the Alpine Symphony has been accused of being mere sound cinema; film music without a film, superficial tone painting without real symphonic depth; from the beginning of the first, quite different working concepts onwards it was more than its critics wanted to concede it to be. Rather, the Alps as a subject and their musical realisation were part of a larger construct. The poetic idea of the work creates its own form, just as Strauss described it in his ideal.

After an exhausting four years of a nomadic life between London; Frankfurt; Berlin and Leipzig; in 1845 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy found a suitable place to live at Königstraße 5 (today the Mendelssohn-Haus) in Leipzig. The museum complex also includes a garden with a garden house; the upper floor of which has been converted into a chamber music hall. The hall has an historic grand piano (Steinway; circa 1910) and excellent acoustics; which is why it is regularly used for music recordings. The CD at hand which combines the mentioned piano trios was recorded there; too. In its booklet; the reader can get a view into the museum’s rooms which breathe the air of the mid 19th century without being mouldy.

Freiberg has always been an important cultural location. Already shortly after its foundation in the twelfth century; as the result of important discoveries of silver ore; culture and music were documented and integral parts of urban life. Freiberg was the second Saxon city to have a band of town waits from which various musical groups were later to evolve. The town’s prosperity also made possible the building of large hall churches of which the Cathedral St. Mary numbers even today among the region’s most important cultural monuments.

The late 19th century saw the expansion of the Neustadt; the German district of Strasbourg; recently listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Built during the same period; the three historic organs chosen for the complete recording of Johannes Brahms’ organ chorales are the precious witnesses to a time of exceptional artistic luxuriance. The three Fin de siècle composers whose works were additionally selected by Jean-Michel Douiller revive Brahms’s sonorous world as they breathe life into these three instruments: Ernest Chausson; Max Reger; and Gustav Busch. The works by Chausson and Busch are recorded for the very first time on the CD at hand.

“Fanfaronade” is an 18th-century French expression for “pompous swagger”. The repertoire presented on the CD at hand was composed mainly at the court of a ruler who proclaimed himself to be the sun-like center of the universe. This unparalleled fanfaronade certainly rubbed off on his court musicians.

On the CD at hand; Hannes Pohlit plays the debut recording of the complete cycle. It contains lyrical and dramatical fantasies on tango standards like “El Día Que Me Quieras”; “Por Una Cabeza” and “Sus Ojos Se Cerraron” as well as complex showpieces which due to their virtuosity remind one of Liszt’s “Mephisto Waltz” or opera fantasies. The album is a homage both to the emotional world of the sung classical tango as well as to the exalted romantic salon. It presents the Blüthner Aliquot grand piano as a symphonic instrument and Hannes Pohlit as a versatile stylistic composer as well as a technically superior pianist.

Jazz meets classical singing – the guitarist and singer Peter Fessler, together with the baritone Ulf Dirk Mädler, form the duo Fessler & Mädler, which has set itself the goal of exploring new paths in music. A chance encounter in a Greek restaurant in Berlin-Charlottenburg, where both had been regulars for years, turned into a close collaboration, which has resulted in several joint projects since 2014. Fessler & Mädler – these are two outstanding voices from classical music and jazz in a completely new polyphonic fusion with the classical guitar.With this album, the two musicians now present a version of well-known Advent songs and Christmas carols which, thanks to the guitar accompaniment, brings the folk song character of the songs to light once more and frees them from any pathos. At the same time, the two are also breaking new ground – both rhythmically and harmonically. The result is an interpretation that is as coherent as it is innovative.