One of the most fascinating challenges that any violinist can face is the repertoire for solo violin. In this genre of music, both the musician and the listener can encounter polyphonic masterpieces performed with minimal means - with only four strings. These pieces often carry as much emotional and musical meaning as works composed for a large orchestra. This rarely represented category in musical literature has always excited the artist Agata-Maria Raatz. She wondered how Bach managed to create such a remarkably complex and demanding harmonic as well as formal structure in his sonatas and partitas for solo violin, which are considered timeless masterpieces of extraordinary brilliance in every detail. Where did he draw his inspiration from? What music did he listen to? And who was he as a person? Bach was not only a genius, but also a human being. Monuments created to honour personalities of genius often obscure their humanity, which encompasses not only the outstanding and special, but also the mundane and prosaic of life.

The album "Echo of BACH" is her personal exploration through the history of solo music for violin, tracing its origins from the early Baroque period to the present. It is a musical journey centred on J. S. Bach, an inspiration to many generations of composers. On this unique path, the great master not only inspires, but is also influenced by the works of other musicians. Among them is a composer who might have been a guidepost for Bach on his musical path. It is the composer and violinist Jean Paul von Westhoff. Bach was 18 years old at the time, while Westhoff died only two years later at the age of 49. The probability is high that they met at that time and the young Bach became familiar with Westhoff's work. For her album she has chosen the Suite No. 5 in D minor. In addition to a piece composed by the artist especially for this CD under the pseudonym Clara Jaz, we also find the work "Cette âme a six ailes tout comme les Séraphins" (This soul has six wings like the Seraphim) composed by the Swiss composer Xavier Dayer especially for Agata-Maria Raatz.

The paths of cellist Nargiza Yusupova and pianist Polina Spirina crossed for the first time in 2016, but not, as one might expect, in the corridors of music academies – curiously enough, in a children's playground. Since then, this Munich duo has attracted attention with its brilliant and sensitive, transparent sound. They also create unique and intimate moments with their charming storytelling and poignant anecdotes from their lives. The listeners and spectators are glued to their lips, their ears follow the passionate and sensual playing of this chamber music fusion. It is the very special closeness to the selected audience, personal and approachable. Nargiza Yusupova & Polina Spirina combine their music with a direct mouthpiece to the audience. The press agrees that "the harmony of their virtuoso interplay" makes every concert an "experience of dynamic contrasts and floating sounds". They are the first and so far the only chamber music duo of its kind to bring to life rare or never before performed masterpieces such as those also part of this CD by Camillo Schumann and Alexander Borodin. Thanks to their fine chamber music artistry, outstanding commitment and unique programme selection, Duo Rubikon received funding from the Deutscher Musikrat in 2021 as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR programme "Preserving and Strengthening the Infrastructure for Culture in Germany", which brought this CD to life.

The CD includes Moser's most important works for violoncello with and without accompaniment. Moser - one of the most renowned Swiss composers - explores new tonal systems and the dialogue between sound and language with a never-ending spirit of research. Almost like a sound-sealing alchemist, he develops new playing techniques that reveal astonishing sound phenomena. Thomas Meyer on the CD: "When was the last time I heard such intimate music! The loving togetherness is, as it were, the prerequisite for most of the pieces on this CD, for the composer is composing here for the cellist with whom he has long shared life (...), for Käthi Gohl Moser." Roman Brotbeck on Moser: "... Moser (...) pays attention to clarity. Better to say too little than too much, better to remain precise in the little than to become diffuse with too much information. However, this has nothing to do with new simplicity. What is clear and few, precisely because it is understood, very quickly becomes very complex.” Heinz Holliger: "Great music, insanely well played."

The four Piano Sonatas of Stéphan Elmas are the masterpieces among his compositions, together with the piano concertos. As they were never performed until now, I dedicated time and effort to bring them to life. Making the premiere recording of these Sonatas is both a privilege and a responsibility. I am creating and sharing with the audience the first impression and image of this music. Therefore, it was quite difficult to make the right decisions about the narrative and architecture in the music. It took me almost two years until I was sure of my ideas, interpretation style, timing and intensity. All the sonatas have unbelievably beautiful melodic lines and heartbreaking harmonies. Listening to them and despite the fact that they are totally unknown, one says “somehow, that sounds familiar!”. I am sure that listening to this CD, you will also feel the same.

On every journey comes a moment where you stop, look around, and listen to what is inside you. There are no rules to these moments. They come and go without our control. One of these moments happened to the Israeli-born mezzo soprano Na’ama Goldman after deciding to put down roots in Berlin. Constantly traveling the world as an opera singer, why was it Berlin of all places? The city from which her family was deported? Music was where she found answers. Mahler, Korngold, and Weill inspired her to look at her life in a different way. The music of Engel carried with it the sounds of distant memories. Argov and Bat offered new perspectives on her homeland. The discovery of the song Elei Tashuv by Sonnenschein, which is dedicated to her grandmother, connected she to her heritage. The Kaddisch by Ravel reminded her of the power of being a woman, by singing this prayer traditionally allowed only for men. When brought together on a CD album, the songs connect with each other. Their music captures a moment in a journey through a multitude of expressions. They speak of their own heritage, their own legacy.

Praised as a superb and impeccable singer with a gripping presence on stage, Israeli-born Na’ama Goldman regularly interprets a rich selection of leading roles on international stages. She gained outstanding audience and critical acclaim in 2012 when she stepped in at the last minute to play the title role in Carmen at the Masada Opera Festival of The Israeli Opera, while still a member of their Meitar Opera Studio.

This CD recording not only represents a complete show of organ works composed and played by Sally Jo Rüedi during the last 20 years. It also presents four outstanding organs built during the same period by Metzler Orgelbau AG of Dietikon ZH (Switzerland). Each of these four organs, and of course the room in which they are located, has its own unique sound personality, which the artist has chosen for these recordings to match the character of each composition. One of the main sources of inspiration for this comprehensive release was an encounter with the wind-dynamic organ of the Stadtkirche Biel and the discovery of its many sound possibilities, which it offers to the performing artist and the composer. It is the first organ in the world to combine such a wind-dynamic work with a traditional large church organ. The title piece of this CD, "Kotura – Herr der Winde", is a direct result of the artist's first encounter with this wonderful organ. From the first moment Sally Jo Rüedi was captivated by the ethereal sounds of the wind-dynamic stops and sound effects. Experimenting with these possibilities was as if a floodgate of natural sounds opened up and unfolded in a wave of sonic expression in the church - a true "breeze". Freed from the confines of definable tonal steps, the music is enlivened by a wild creative freedom. It was only after the composer heard the first recording of the first round of improvisations on that magical winter evening that she realised the artistic possibilities that came with this organ. Sally Jo Rüedi was born in England and is organist of the Reformed Churches of Nidau, Oberwil bei Büren, Büren an der Aare and of the Christ Catholic Franziskanerkirche in Solothurn, Switzerland. She is active as a composer and songwriter and has written music for organ, piano, voices and chamber music as well as turning her attention to songwriting. Her music for the song Bright World was performed at the opening of the UN World Summit for the Information Society.

After the great success of their first Solo Musica CD "Hymne à la Beauté", Sonja and Astrid Leutwyler this time recorded further discoveries for the special instrumentation of voice, violin and piano. A great enrichment of the trio with pianist Benjamin Engeli is cellist Benjamin Nyffenegger. In this second album "Secret Nights", better-known works contrast with rarities inspired by the mysteries of the night and nature. Carl Reinecke, who influenced early Romanticism with his intimate forms of expression, is represented with a small cycle. With Camille Saint-Saëns' song "Le bonheur est chose légère", French Romanticism makes itself heard. The central element of this concept album are works by female composers of the 19th century. Anyone who wanted to make her way as a female composer in past centuries had a hard time. It was not uncommon for women to be forbidden to make music and compose. After all, if it was a question of practising a profession in this field, it was considered unseemly, especially in the upper classes, for a woman of her status to want to earn money. In this new album, three female composers are represented with several works. With one exception, their poems set to music are by women poets. Amy Marcy Beach was the first American woman to compose a symphony. She was also a highly talented autodidact who could sing 40 different melodies at the age of three and is represented here with several songs. Lili Boulanger is the younger sister of the world-famous music teacher Nadia Boulanger. In Lili's short life - she died at the age of 24 - she wrote a total of 50 compositions. Her sensitive Nocturne can also be heard on this CD "Secret Nights".

The trumpet can be traced back for almost 4000 years in many cultures and more than any other musical instrument it is surrounded by the aura of something special: it was the signal giver at ritual, religious, military or royal state occasions. The sound of the trumpet is still ambivalent today: even where it presents itself as sweet, it always resonates with a near-death shaking that can also become infernal and violent at any time. This sound remains connected with cosmic, divine or at least princely royal attitude. Reinhold Friedrich is one of the most uncompromising artists in this field. He is one of the world's leading trumpeters - sometimes celebrated in the press as the "Trumpet God" - and impresses with a breathtaking variety of repertoire: whether classical valve trumpet, whether the high piccolo trumpet, natural trumpet, historical keyed trumpet, whether with the Jewish shofar or the softer flugelhorn, - his playing always becomes that event which is then able to provoke reactions ranging from goose bumps to a mental flight of fancy. Whether a complex score of new music, whether baroque music and virtuoso classical music or "just" a little melody of folk music: Reinhold Friedrich always knows how to create with his playing that overwhelming presence of “Now!", which characterizes the trumpet so uniquely... He is joined by equally exposed masters of their craft: solo trumpeter Hannes Läubin, long associated with Reinhold Friedrich as an equal duo partner and friend, and "Grisha" Gregory Ahss, whose violin playing displays a similar stylistic breadth ranging from classical virtuosity to melodically heart-warming emotionality. This distinctive sound college is rounded off by the Munich Symphony Orchestra / Münchner Symphoniker, conducted by Martín Baeza-Rubio, which is as colorful as it is sensitive.

The first part of the Douze Toccates by Hans Georg Nägeli was published in Zurich in 1808; there was no second part. On the title page, the composer conceals himself behind an “éditeur” of the same name. Prominent status, on the other hand, is given to the Répertoire des Clavecinistes, a series that ran from 1803 to 1805 in which Nägeli published a total of 15 volumes with works by Clementi, Steibelt, Dussek, Beethoven and others. The choice of “auteurs”, whose works he included in the Répertoire and to whom he dedicated the Toccates, reveals Nägeli’s view of the latest developments in music for the keyboard. Clementi and Beethoven in particular stand out for him as representatives of an era in which “contrapuntal writing is interwoven with artful display by the pianist”, as he writes in the “Announcement” of the Répertoire in the musical press. It is his aim that the Toccates should be understood as an observation on this turning-point in music history. There are therefore good reasons to combine Nägeli’s Toccates with works by Clementi and Beethoven on this release. Nägeli’s pieces enter into a historical context that is an integral part of the Toccates as aesthetic objects, not mere surroundings to them. We hear Nägeli’s pieces in Nägeli’s musical world and Nägeli’s musical world in the pieces. The musical portfolio of Els Biesemans has many aspects to it. After studying piano, organ and chamber music at the Lemmens-Institut in Leuven, Els Biesemans specialized in the varied keyboard styles of the 18th and 19th centuries at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. With a repertoire ranging from medieval music to the modern era, Els Biesemans is the recipient of numerous international awards.

The Ukrainian folk song is unquestionably a unique phenomenon. No nation in history has amassed such a wealth of songs as those created by the Ukrainian people. UNESCO has an impressive audio library of folk songs from all over the world. The Ukrainian contribution amounts to some 15,500 songs and is far and away the biggest collection in the library. Folk music in the Ukrainian language originated in the 9th century at the time when Kyivan Rus was founded; the authors of the texts of most songs have long since been forgotten. Over the years, many composers researched and arranged them, principally for voice and piano, and transformed them into “Romances”, art songs, like German Lieder. The program includes 15 songs: three romances by four composers and three folk songs. Each work has accompanied the artist's life in one way or another, so it has a special meaning for Lena Belkina.

Many of the works on this album are being recorded for the first time – and this is a great opportunity to discover Ukrainian music, its character, its temperament, its melodic language and the influence of time upon it. The program is emotional and multi-faceted and would not have sounded so authentic without the pianist Violina Petrychenko. She is making Ukrainian piano music known around the world, recording composers like Kosenko, Revutskyi, Barvinskyi and other artists little known in the wider world. This duet is a union of opposites that are brought together to complement one another, to reflect personal strength and passion for music. The artists united by a common goal – showing Ukrainian art full of love for their country to the whole world.

He was born "with a little silver spoon in his mouth", Ralph Vaughan Williams jokingly said of himself, which made him independent of time-consuming teaching and instrumentalist activities that otherwise rob a composer of a lot of energy. Thus, he immediately gave up the post of organist at the London parish of St. Barnabas after his studies, when he was sure of his creative vocation. When Vaughan Williams died in 1958 at the age of 85, he was acknowledged as the most important figure between Edward Elgar and Benjamin Britten and was buried next to Henry Purcell in Westminster Abbey, the pantheon of the greats from England's past.

Vaughan Williams, who also conducted the highly successful premiere at the Leeds Festival in 1910 arranged by Stanford, worked on the Sea Symphony for almost seven years. Originally conceived as a symphonic poem - temporarily titled The Ocean - it marks the turning point in his output from smaller-scale works to large-scale and large-scale choral and orchestral compositions. The Serenade to Music was written in 1938 for the Golden Jubilee Concert of Sir Henry Wood (1869 - 1944), a conductor of great merit to English musical life. To mark the 150th anniversary this year, the Solo Musica label is now releasing an up-to-date recording with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Radio Choir under the direction of principal conductor Dennis Russell Davies.

At a certain age, one would like to reflect a bit publicly on the past! says the man who is known to the general public through his role as the lovable policeman Michi Mohr from the TV series "Rosenheim Cops". And that's what musician and actor Max Müller does - acoustically! On an album together with a book he has written twelve "unwritten letters". To twelve people to whom he "still wanted to say something". Clear, unambiguous and - with a twinkle in his eye! He is musically accompanied by the harpist Elisabeth Daxer with specially composed pieces.

For years, Margarita Höhenrieder was searching for the authentic sound of Frédéric Chopin's piano works. Which instrument of its time most convincingly reflected Chopin's music? Chopin himself had given the answer in 1831: "Pleyel's instruments are the non plus ultra"! The choice for the recording therefore fell on a Pleyel fortepiano, built around 1855 in Paris and expertly restored using historical materials and methods. It is absolutely identical in construction to the instrument Chopin owned and thus represents an authentic sound testimony. The recording location was also of particular importance: the Mazurkas on the release were recorded on this instrument, in a room comparable to a salon from around the middle of the 19th century.

The orchestra "La Scintilla " also played on period instruments under the direction of Riccardo Minasi. The recording of the E minor concerto with the historical version by Jan Ekier then took place on another Pleyel of about the same year of construction, in the acoustically outstanding Oberstrass church in Zurich. Margarita Höhenrieder's careful recreation of the authentic Chopin sound gives the listener highly interesting insights into music history.

Another Christmas Record? God knows there are enough of them on the already confusing market of sentimentalities, curiosities and new acoustic interpretations of the end-of-year spectacle. Or are there? Well, more or less. But one has been missing so far! It's the melange that tastes good to us, and it's the weighing of the different spices that we have concocted into our own Christmas ornaments and now hang on what could more or less be a tree. With something on it that could be more or less tinsel. With presents under the tree that can't be clearly reduced to a single wish list either, because, dear Christ Child, you have so many possibilities! And so do we, more or less!

Six musicians in a symphony orchestra and a singer in musical theatre are at home here, but you don't want to stay at home permanently and exclusively. So they go there, wander off into more distant genres or stick to their last. Or at least seven different ones. And write seven different wish lists. And condense them into one in which each individual is reflected.

This new album was recorded in the year of our 20th anniversary. And all pieces in this release are exclusive original compositions. We composed them during the last few years, and each of us has tried to find his very own voice. And yet every piece on this album is the result of our collegiality, our mutual support, reflecting our constant exchange on our individual tastes and preferences, as well as our critiques and the sense of humor of each Rastrelli member. This release provided each of us with a good opportunity to grow, to set new goals, to solve new tasks, to develop new methods. But our most important prerequisite from the very beginning has remained: our strong desire to express the music that each of us hears and feels within himself, sharing it, first among the colleagues and now with our audience! In this project, too, we have again recognized that music is the finest means of communication among people. That is why we dare to present this colorful collection of music to our listeners and friends. May you enjoy it as much as we do!