"1939" - Europe on the eve of Armageddon. Some still do not want to believe that it will happen, some guessed it and some are fatalistic or even euphoric. Nowadays, barely a little over 70 years later, hardly anybody in the younger generation can imagine that such a catastrophe is possible or could be possible again. On the basis of three violin concertos by Bartók, Hartmann and Walton, which were created that same year, these moods of the various composers should be audible on an album with the Munich Symphony Orchestra acting as a kind of time machine. Hailed by the New York Times as “a brilliant soloist,” with "extraordinary precision and luminosity,” violinist Fabiola Kim is one of the most dynamic players of her generation with a wide variety of repertoire from classical to contemporary music. Fabiola Kim is the winner of various awards and competitions, including the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s Concerto Competition as the youngest competitor in the history of the competition to win. Since then, she has won the Aspen Music Festival Violin Concerto Competition, Livingston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition, the Kumho Prodigy Music Award, an award given to the most promising young musicians in Korea, and she was a prize winner at Corpus Christi International Competition and the Irving M. Klein International Competition for Strings.

Dreamlover is a concept-album that brings together important parts of Albena Petrovic’s works for baritone saxophone and alto saxophone, in both solo and chamber arrangements. Here she chooses the pieces in relation to Joan Marti-Frasquier, who interpreted all of them and has given his energy to the creative process. Her catalogue for saxophones started in 2006-2007 with the quartet “Gebet zum Nichterscheinen,” where the baritone plays almost solo by integrating it into the quartet. This was during a time when saxophone ensembles made an important presence and were multiplying all over Europe. The piece appeared during this period, but without being published it did not enjoy great popularity after its premiere; yet 15 years later she rediscovered it without a wrinkle, thanks to the Kebyart Ensemble. It is very curious to discover in this early piece as a precursor, many of the characteristic elements that will mark her later writing.

Folk music and dance have always been a fount of inspiration for art music, keeping it in touch with the soul of the people. However, the tendency of composers towards a universal musical language has considerably diluted the character of ethnic elements that they include, a phenomenon particularly noticeable in Europe. During the 18th century an artistic trend arose bringing out exotic color and charm. Composers began drawing on foreign folklore to spice their works with unfamiliar sounds, as for example the Rondo alla Turca in the sonata for piano in A major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the same time, a rise in nationalism was also gradually taking place politically, with every country, even ethnic group, aspiring to distinguish itself from it's neighbors by it's own particular music. This movement is often the expression by oppressed peoples of a desire for emancipation. The canons of classical music, firmly standardized up to that time, had now to integrate the characteristics of folk melody and rhythm, be it in tonality, meter or structure. If this emergence of popular inspiration can be correlated with social developments, it can also touch the listener more directly. In addition, it gives the possibility to composers, sometimes far from their homeland, to remain connected to their cultural roots, as we shall see with Alberto Ginastera.

In her New York orchestral debut with conductor Philippe Entremont, Anna Petrova was praised for her "ultra-smooth playing style" [New York Fine Arts Examiner]. She is an assistant professor of piano at the University of Louisville, KY, holds a PhD in musicology from the Manhattan School of Music, and performs frequently as a soloist and chamber musician. The album presents the music of four composers: Sergey Rachmaninoff, Sergey Prokofiev, Alexander Scriabin, and Pancho Vladigerov. Three Russians and one Bulgarian, the music of whom spans a total of 50 years, from 1892 to 1942. “The heart is an ancestral metaphor… For example, it has been sometimes thought as the secret seat of courage or of intelligence; or as a hiding place for emotions; or as a breakable, fragile and precious object that we treasure; as a place from which sincere feelings emanate; as the locus of romantic desire; as the deep, summarizing content of a person… Also, in many languages, the word "heart" comes from either the Latin root cor/cordis, or from the Greek root kardia. That is, Spanish (corazon), French (coeur), and Italian (cuore), to give an example, take the Latin root, while German (Herz) and English (heart) take the Greek one (kardia). But what is most important for my present purposes here, and what these two roots share amongst each other, is their connection to the Indo-European root kr, which has the original sense of "vibrating." Indeed, the two consonants sound like that when pronounced together, like a gentle vibration. Krrr.... In this very sense, too, a heart is a vibrating object, a vibrating, secret, treasured place - just like I wanted the piano and my playing of it to be in this album - a dear object that secretly vibrates with the sounds of my music.” (Anna Petrova)

In this release we encounter Schubert in the music of his main oeuvre - the huge number of his songs, but also his extensive collection of chamber music and piano pieces - so we frequently come across a trait of the composer's that presents itself again and again and very centrally: his tendency towards deep melancholy in all its manifestations and in particular his constant return to the confrontation with death. He appears as the divinely ingenious being who can hardly be grasped in material terms and who can directly translate everything human into music from within himself. And at the same time, he succeeds in combining the naïve, joyful existence with the abysses of deep pain and presenting them together. The experience of musical expression in almost all of his overtures is all the more surprising: we encounter a light-hearted, unclouded lightness of being, a positive, joyful feeling in which we experience liberation and an opening of the soul, which shows a completely different side of Schubert the genius: the strong sense of hope and unrestrained vitality. Throughout, all these overtures avoid painful passages and are suffused with light and sunshine. For over five decades, the Berliner Symphoniker have been an integral part of Berlin's musical and cultural life and have enriched the German orchestral landscape; since 1990, they have been the orchestra for all Berliners. In addition to the classical, wide-ranging and popular concert program, the repertoire of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra also includes special rarities - unknown and forgotten works as well as contemporary compositions.

This music will take you into a sphere that is interwoven with emotions and infatuating melodies. Inspired by composers like Ennio Morricone, John Barry or Michel Legrand, I found the artistic power to create this album. The musical themes arose from different narratives and combine gentleness and melancholy with strength and energy. This new and unique recording was made possible through the successful collaboration with the Ensemble Symphonique de Paris under the direction of conductor Carlos Dourthé. The recording for this album was made in late 2019 with the Ensemble Symphonique de Paris, consisting of musicians from the Orchestre National de France as well as musicians from the Orchestra of the University of Paris, conducted by Carlos Dourthé. Patrice Muzard's works are currently performed regularly both in France and internationally in prestigious concert halls.

For her debut album, Swiss soprano Stephanie Bühlmann went in search of clues: based on personal encounters with works by her compatriots, she discovered musical treasures off the beaten track of the standard vocal repertoire. This is how the idea of an album of unknown songs by Swiss composers was born, most of which were recorded for the first time for the album "Zauberluft". Magic, air, love, nature, soul, peace and home are the themes of the songs, set to music in enchanting, airy, touching, stirring and comforting melodies in the late romantic tradition. The life dates of the five composers Richard Flury, Urs Joseph Flury, Paul Miche, Peter Mieg and Daniel Behle, who set texts in German and French, go from 1896 to the present day. Stephanie Bühlmann studied at the conservatories of Zurich and Lucerne. She deepened her studies in “Lied singing” in the Liedduo class with Hartmut Höll and in collaboration with Daniel Behle. As a sought-after soloist, she can be heard regularly in opera and concert. Together with her lied partner Benjamin Engeli she presents with "Zauberluft" a series of fascinating first recordings.

Alexander Schaichet (1887-1964), Russian-born violinist, violist and conductor, was a huge supporter of contemporary music in Switzerland. In 1920 he founded Switzerland’s first chamber orchestra, the Kammerorchester Zürich. It was Schaichet’s declared aim to “perform works rarely heard in Zurich, works that have never before been publicly performed or which are of special merit.” From 1920 to 1943 he gave 51 premieres and 215 first performances of works with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, including many works by modern Swiss composers, and discovered new musical talents whose fame would spread far beyond Switzerland, around the globe. In 1943, as a result of difficult conditions imposed on Jewish émigrés, Alexander Schaichet withdrew from his position and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra was disbanded. A book entitled “Zivilstand Musiker. Alexander Schaichet und das erste Kammerorchester der Schweiz” (civil status musician: Alexander Schaichet and the first Swiss chamber orchestra) was published to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of Switzerland’s first chamber orchestra and this was complemented by the staging of a number of events. By releasing this double album, the Central Library of Zurich, which holds the artistic legacy of Alexander and Irma Schaichet, seeks to honor the pioneering musical career of Alexander Schaichet.