Then as now, the music of “Les Six“ is a fascinating kaleidoscope of musical ideas and friendship; an idiosyncratic preciousness full of musical avant-garde, everyday melancholy, profound curiosities, virtuosity and passion that is in need of rediscovery. The collaborative work “L’Album des Six“ was created in 1920, to which each of the six composers Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre contributed a piece. Arranged alphabetically, the album summarizes the composers through their connection with various aesthetic ideas, different personalities and lifelong friendship. 100 years later, the “L’Album des Six“ is expanded with corresponding song cycles from their oeuvres: In addition to well-known compositions by Francis Poulenc and Darius Milhaud, the first releases of the song cycles by Georges Auric (1940) and Louis Durey (1920) enrich the album in a special way.

The works of the composer Markus Lehmann-Horn have already won several awards. As a border crosser between the classical and the technical-electronic music world, he also wrote numerous film music compositions for national and international film productions and was for this among others awarded the Franz Grothe Prize 2009. He has received numerous nominations and a Best Film Score Award at the annual Jerry Goldsmith International Award in Spain, as well as a nomination for the International Emmy 2012. Lehmann-Horn's music is played by renowned orchestras, conductors and ensembles, including the Ensemble Triolog, Minguet Quartet, BR Rundfunkorchester, the NDR Radiophilharmonie or the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra. On this album, one will find recordings with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and percussionist Alexej Gerassimez and a song for soprano and orchestra with soprano Sibylla Duffe and the Munich Radio Orchestra.

Soprano Janet Perry hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She began her career with lessons on piano and violin at a young age. In her adulthood she has found resounding success, having recorded several major works under Karajan’s baton, including Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Beethoven’s 9th symphony, and Bruckner’s Te Deum. Perry writes of the works chosen, “...classical music has truly made me who I am today. It has been a constant companion since my earliest childhood... The songs of Mozart Debussy, Faure, Duparc, and Strauss have been in my repertoire for a long time, we are old friends who enjoy music-and the silence between the notes, together.” Perry is accompanied by pianist Jean Lemaire, who specializes in accompaniment and chamber music. He frequently performs throughout Europe, the USA, Japan, and South America.

THE TWIOLINS are the siblings Marie-Luise and Christoph Dingler, specialists in the violin duo genre. Having grown up in a musical environment, they have achieved the highest degree of interplay and a unique sound identity through their shared curriculum vitae and constant playing together. Why Vivaldi and Piazzolla? Or to put it another way: why, after more than ten years of searching and working on new compositions, does the duo now devote itself to two deceased composers who could hardly be more opposite? Adapting Kremer's project Eight Seasons and transforming it into a typical "Twiolins project" is unusual for the TWIOLINS, but it was almost dream walkingly simple. Thus it was clear to the duo that the Eight Seasons had to evolve, through their own interpretation, transformation and growth. In short: an evolution was necessary. Nevertheless, it was an adventure to play the Four Seasons from Vivaldi on two violins arrange. Years of playing together gave them enough experience to be able to present Vivaldi's masterpiece appropriately - without reducing the content of the work. Both Vivaldi and Piazzolla have undergone a transformation and show us new aspects in this chamber music version that have never been heard before in these great works of world literature ...

The Otherworld... The human being rooted in the world that sees only what the eye can see… Does he at once dare a glance to the side where nature, spirits and elemental beings reside? Not many of us have kept the ability to view them and get in contact. This release offers you the ‘Otherworldly’ eye from the early Romantic period up to the classical modernism, including the Northern countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland), and now hope you allow yourself to be "lost to the world"… Plunge into the magical world of twilight - populated with elemental spirits, elves, waterlilies, nymphs and merman. The creatures of the unseen are the protagonists of this classical song album and tempt the listener into their legendary realms. Carl Loewe, Johannes Brahms, Max Reger, Nikolai Medtner, Hugo Wolf, Alexander Zemlinsky, Franz Schreker, Hans Sommer and many more engaged themselves in this mystic world and set it in music in a very sensual and playful way!

When we turn our attention inward, we encounter the worlds of consciousness and unconsciousness, the dark inner space of visions and dreams and the workshop of our soul. Every human being follows a unique road of confusion and error on the journey towards inner truth. Communion with oneself transforms the sharpness of the day, leading our soul through the dreams and inner movements that bring unguarded freedom. At the end of all actions, pure Being remains. The greatest of all universal energy - Love. Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Max Reger, Louis Spohr, Karl Weigl, Robert Füstenthal, Richard Rössler as well as Gabriel Fauré, Henri Duparc und Reynaldo Hahn take us on their musical journey towards the inner world.

The new Solo Musica recording "Promenade" of Frédéric Chopin's Préludes op. 28 and Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" brings together two prominent piano cycles that are almost emblematic of their creators' oeuvre. In the juxtaposition, pianist Andrea Kauten shows what unites them despite all the expected contrasts, which goes far beyond some obvious references by Mussorgsky to Chopin's Préludes. Both large-scale cycles combine miniatures of partly aphoristic character. They stand in the tension between European art music and the national influences of Eastern European and Slavic traditions. For the time being, they seek different solutions. The cosmopolitan Chopin, rejecting any demonstrative patriotism, manages the seamless integration of his Polish idiom into a universally European expression. Mussorgsky, as a self-confessed post-cosmopolitan, emphatically recalled the folk-Russian, which he offensively opposed to everything "Western". Both composers found their way to a personalised musical language which, while freely handling the form, allows the traditional harmonies to be broken up by deliberate instabilities. Both meet on the path to modernity. Even if emotional exhibitionism was alien to both composers and the works can only be related to the biographical snapshots of their genesis with extreme caution: Both cycles are set against the background of a confrontation with death that is as surprising as it is inexorable. With passion, musicality and a high technical standard, Andrea Kauten elicits restrained, poetic but also very expressive sounds from a concert grand. Again and again she surprises her listeners: "Flushed and at times over-assertive, Kauten leaves you in no doubt of her commitment and intensity", said Bruce Morrison in Gramophone.

Carlo Donato Cossoni (1623–1700) was born into a family of musicians in the small town of Gravedona by Lake Como on November 10, 1623. By 1650 he was organist at San Fedele in Como, where he had previously been ordained priest. He published his op. 1 of two-part and three-part motets in Venice in 1665, and 13 further works followed up to 1679, all of sacred music. He bequeathed 54 sacred works to the Benedictine abbey of Einsiedeln (Appellato della Madonna de Valdo, “Our Lady of the Hermits”), and after his death in Gravedona they were added to the abbey library. Other Cossoni manuscripts have been preserved in Milan, Como and Bologna. The NOVANTIQUA Bern vocal ensemble was founded in 1987 by Bernhard Pfammatter to prepare sophisticated choral literature for concert performance by a small ensemble. The name NOVANTIQUA expresses the ensemble’s commitment to the interpretation of early works alongside the performance of music from the 20th and 21st centuries. The Kesselberg Ensemble was founded in 2004 by Latvian musicians, all graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. The ensemble chose the name “Kesselberg”, Latvian Katlakalns, to celebrate the district of Riga where Johann Gottfried Müthel (born 1728 in Mölln, died 1788 in Riga) spent his later years. J.S. Bach’s last pupil, Müthel was Latvia’s greatest composer of the 18th century.

Albena Petrovic, the Luxembourgish composer of Bulgarian origin, has meanwhile made a name for herself far beyond the borders of the duchy - with more than 600 compositions in a wide variety of genres and instrumentations, including operas, concerts, chamber music, vocal and solo piano works, which have been published, recorded, and performed worldwide. Now her new album Bridges of Love, which combines highlights of her piano work with new compositions, will be available worldwide in March 2020. The interpretation is in the hands of her congenial compatriot Plamena Mangova. The Bulgarian pianist first attracted international attention when she won second prize at the renowned Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels in 2007. Since then she has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Berlin, the BBC Philharmonic and the symphony orchestras of Rotterdam, Radio France, Luxembourg and Tokyo, and has played alongside artists such as Sir Colin Davis, Lawrence Foster, Renaud Capucon and Maria João Pires. Her recordings have been honored many times with awards such as the 'Diapason d'Or de l'Annee'.

Brahms’s complete sonatas for piano and violin (Op. 78, 100, 108 and Scherzo from the F.A.E Sonata) are the monumental works that inspire and intrigue chamber musicians as well as classical music audiophiles. With a fresh view of these important pieces, this recording puts the composer first, allowing the protagonist to meet the composer's requirements for the scores. With differentiated phrasing and tempi, Darvarova & Chen rediscover Brahms' violin sonatas in a completely different and new way. GRAMMY®-nominated, award-winning (Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in 2017 and 2018) and a concert violinist since the age of four, Elmira Darvarova caused a sensation, becoming the first ever (and so far only) woman-concertmaster in the history of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. As MET concertmaster she has performed with the greatest conductors of our time, including the legendary Carlos Kleiber. Hailed as “brilliant” by Fanfare Magazine, multi-award winning pianist-composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist at prominent music venues in USA and China, such as Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall of Lincoln Center, and China National Centre for Performing Arts.

A string quartet by Richard Wagner or Gustav Mahler? Isn't that what the music world has always wanted? The Voyager Quartet goes on a soul-searching tour. From "Villa Wahnfried", sounding love letters, coded messages and secret messages are delivered, written by Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler, addressed to their muses Alma and Mathilde. A psychogram in beguiling tones about the unspeakable in those days. Andreas Höricht, violist of the quartet, who received the highest international acclaim for his transcription of Schubert's "Winterreise for String Quartet", goes one step further. Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Mahler's Piano Quartet, movements and fragments from his 5th and 10th symphonies are "recomposed" for string quartet - the medium for spiritual messages.

Throughout history, the cultural legacy of some geniuses has been of such universal magnitude that its aftermath has spread far beyond the narrow confines of the actual field of their activity. In a study of the University of Cambridge, which is dedicated to the ranking of the 100 most important, most influential personalities in history, Ludwig van Beethoven is ranked 27th; Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821, rank 2), that brilliant commander and statesman a year older than Beethoven. While the French Revolution and its later emperor influenced contemporary artists, Napoleon himself, did not care a bit about music. In the same way that his military campaigns of that time have continued to have an effect to the present day, Beethoven changed the face of music forever. In his fundamentally new conception of the art of sound based on the Viennese Classicism, everything that was created in composition by him at the time outshone even those, who did not know Beethoven and his music despite his later popularity. While the pianist Beethoven caused a furor and was admired at a young age, his works caused astonishment and confusion from the very beginning, and often met with frowning criticism. Of course, there were also other, more positive voices. While Beethoven was at the height of his career in the middle phase of his life until about 1815, in recent years, the resentments against his misunderstood late style and the supposedly increasing oddness of its author grew. Nonetheless, the respect shown to him by the international music community increased until the end of his life, culminating in a funeral that the city had never seen before. The casalQuartett‘s five-part Concert & album project explores the phenomenon of Beethoven’s impact on his time, or, conversely, how other musicians influenced him.

"At the time he composed this sonata, Beethoven was already struggling intensely against...his deafness. After his attack of deep despondency, accompanied by suicidal thoughts, his extraordinary vitality regained the upper hand. This renewed energy led first to his Sonata op. 53, dedicated to Count Ferdinand von Waldstein. Schumann’s work Carnaval op. 9 is mischievously subtitled delightful scenes on four notes. This is a reference to the note sequence of A, E-flat, C, and B natural, which in German go by the letters A S C H. These make up the name of the birthplace (Asch) of Ernestine von Fricken, his sweetheart of the moment." -Diatkine

Jean-Nicolas Diatkine comes from a family of recognised doctors and considers commitment to others to be the basis of his profession. It seemed impossible for him to do without this basic attitude in the exercise of his profession, which is why he always sees his artistic development as a return to the essential values to which he has devoted himself over the last thirty years.

What a title? What can the two numbers 60 - 90 mean? The reference to numbers plays a fundamental role in Bach's work. Johann Sebastian Bach built an incredible structure and communication into his works on the foundation of numbers, in the spirit of Soli Deo Gloria – Glory to God alone. All the works on this album are by Johann Sebastian Bach, or have a direct link to him. For example, he arranged the oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello for solo keyboard, and we use Bach’s ornaments in our performance of it. Piazzolla and Shostakovich make reference to The Well-Tempered Clavier. The main work presented here is Bach’s Concerto in D minor BWV 1052, which he transcribed for his own use as a harpsichord concerto. The original version no longer exists, but was for a string instrument: violin or violoncello piccolo, an instrument Bach used in his cantatas. Julius Berger and Andrei Pushkarev have made an arrangement of this piece for violoncello piccolo, a cello tuned a fifth higher. The orchestral part is played by vibraphone and marimba. The transfer to other instruments corresponds to the practice of Bach himself. A special feature of our recording is the continuous peaceful pulsation of about 60 beats per minute, a rhythm that calms and brings introspection The instrumentation used here reflects our deeper objective: vibraphone and marimba giving the heartbeat, to which the cello crafts a life-melody – keeping the spirit of the works performed but in a modern interpretation. The close relationship between rhythm in the music and human pulse creates an atmosphere in this recording that we believe and hope corresponds to what Bach noted in his Lutheran Bible: ‘Where there is devotional music, God with his grace is always present.’

Olga Reiser is a Russian-born flutist from Wiesbaden/Germany. In addition to classical music, Olga Reiser also delights her audiences with modern playing techniques such as beatbox flute, multiphonics and looping. The flute is well known as an orchestral instrument and is also frequently used in chamber music, but it is little known as a solo instrument. Olga Reiser has set out to make the flute more popular! The album "Flute Tales" covers the whole range of music for solo flute from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods, as well as pieces with modern playing techniques such as the aforementioned beatbox flute, multiphonics and improvisation. A special focus of the musical design here are experiments with a loop station that can record sounds and play them back in a continuous loop, creating polyphonic music live before the eyes of the audience. The programme "Flute Tales" is very exciting and accessible for every listener. The compositions Olga Reiser has chosen for her album are not only beautiful pieces for flute solo, but also reflect experiences and events from her life from student days to the present.