Astor Piazzolla, the great Argentine composer and bandoneon player, was born exactly a century ago in 1921. Fascinated by the music of Bach, Mozart and Chopin, Piazzolla wanted to compose great classical music. From Alberto Ginastera he received lessons in orchestration, composition and conducting, as well as in literature and poetry. Following his studies with Ginastera, Piazzolla received a scholarship to study in Paris with the renowned pianist and composer Nadia Boulanger. Under her guidance, he began to conceive of and perfect his own style of composition. Composer and bandoneon player Omar Massa hails from Buenos Aires and has lived in Berlin since 2019. He is seen by music critics as the successor to Astor Piazzolla, whose work he has been performing from the age of six. Massa is considered to be an ambassador and champion of Argentine music as he too creates bridges to classical music with his own compositions. He combines minimalism with contemplative spaces, creates impressionistic colours, uses unusual meters and expands harmonic language without losing the inner melancholy of the true Tango Nuevo. Massa catapults the music of Buenos Aires into the 21st century. For over five decades, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra has been an integral part of Berlin's musical and cultural life, enriching the German orchestral landscape, and since 1990 has been the orchestra for all Berliners. In addition to the popular and long-established symphony concerts held in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra performs throughout Berlin and the surrounding area. With guest performances in Europe and tours to North and South America, Africa and Asia, as well as their appearances at international festivals (in France, Italy, Austria, Spain, Israel, among others), the Berlin Symphony Orchestra presents itself successfully worldwide and sees itself as a cultural ambassador for Berlin.

“PICCOLO ENCOUNTERS” is the culmination of a career-long desire to capture the essence of the wealth of experience we have been able to accumulate as musical partners and friends. As varied as their nationalities, diverse as their backgrounds and contrasting as their cultures, the artists on this album share a close bond: that which connects these seemingly disparate elements and leads to the creation of Encounters that punctuate the lives of composers and performers alike. The sharing of these experiences with you, the audience, is the special privilege of the musician. These encounters and experiences that we were able to make in the world of music had a decisive influence on the life of Pamela Stahel and led to the creation of this album. It is not only the special perspective of a piccolo player that is important, but above all the special repertoire that makes up the character of this collaboration. Both the selection of the pieces and the performers are decisive. Pamela Stahel plays a Burkart Piccolo Elite XXV. Nicola Mazzanti plays a Keefe Piccolo. On the album are Works by Alessandro Cavicchi, Meyer Kupferman, Sophie Dufeutrelle, Francesco Santucci, Jeff Scott and Giacinto Scelsi.

Her artistic career has led her to many of the world’s major music centers. Margarita Höhenrieder has played many concerts as soloist with conductors like Kirill Petrenko, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Riccardo Chailly, and Fabio Luisi, and with such orchestras as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. She has been a friend of Harald Genzmer for many years. Among other works, he dedicated the Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings to her, which she premiered together with Guy Touvron and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn. Genzmer composed his last major work for Margarita Höhenrieder, “Wie ein Traum am Rande der Unendlichkeit” (“Like a Dream on the Edge of Infinity”) for piano and flute.

The advantages of old master violins against modern violins - or vice versa - is one of the most discussed issues in the world of string instruments. A year can barely pass without a new scientific study, in which they claim to be able to definitely prove which one is better. For the most part, these supposed sensations reveal only one dimensional thinking, which can hardly ever be appropriate when defining a such complex phenomenon as a string instrument. The situation is absurd and confusing, because nothing is more vague than the price to sound ratio with stringed instruments. The more expensive an instrument is, the more irrational the opinion. The motto is: Close your eyes and listen carefully, because blind tests can sometimes lead to quite amazing, almost unmasking results. Hamburg born violinist and conductor, Philip A. Draganov, has enthralled audiences in Europe, Asia and teh USA with his "impulsive virtuosity...and exuberant musical power" (Hamburger Abendblatt). He had his debut as soloist at the age of only twelve with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and has since enjoyed a multifaceted international career. In addition to solo performances, recitals and chamber music concerts, Draganov is regularly invited by major conductors such as Günter Wand, Herbert Blomstedt, Bernard Haitink, Christoph von Dohnány, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Sir Roger Norrington and Ken Nagano wtih various orchestras such as the NDR Symphony Orchestra/Hamburg or the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Draganov plays a violin made by the Italian violin maker Tomaso Balestrieri from 1769 and a violin from the German luthier Peter Grenier.

Galina Vracheva excels in the worldwide piano scene not only with skillfully improvised cadenzas in piano concertos from the Baroque to the Modern, but also with spontaneous compositions to wishes expressed from the audience. Her education is equally unique, beginning with piano and composition lessons in Munich, Kiev and Berlin and more than ten years with master classes in concert improvisation at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Haus Marteau in Oberbayern, Mahidol University in Bangkok and the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. From this improvisation Galina Vracheva has meanwhile made her own art form. She improvises her cadenzas in piano concerts and at the moment of the orchestra entrance simply waits for what stirs her and what makes her sound. Or she asks her audience in the piano recitals to give her a theme, to sing a melody or to read a poem. For two nights Galina Vracheva composed piano fantasies for the recording of this album, all spontaneously improvised after Beethoven's symphonies.

This album is already the artist's second encounter with Niccolò Paganini. After the 2014 album "Hommage á Paganini", this is now the complete Opus 1 of the great Italian. The versatile Russian searches for starting points for creativity in dealing with the highly virtuoso music. Thus the 24 Capricci once again become a continuous story. The fast tempi, the lightness in seemingly unplayable passages is only the surface. Rather, Malov searches for the depth, the wit, the variety of colors in this ingenious music. In addition to the improvisations and ornamentations, effects (forest echo, birdsong) can sometimes be heard. Before the last, 24th Caprice, there is a subjective summary of what has been heard so far. In October 2021, the artist will be awarded with the German “Opus Klassik” in the category "Solo Recording Instrument of the Year" for his most recently released album "Bach - 6 Suites for Cello Solo played on a Violoncello da Spalla".

One of the most exciting young artists to emerge in recent years, Martina Filjak is garnering international praise for her poetic passion and technical mastery at the keyboard as well as for her charismatic personality and magnetic stage presence. Martina Filjak came to international attention by winning the Gold Medal, the 1st prize and the Beethoven prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2009, which brought her numerous engagements in the United States and internationally. Prior to that, she won 1st prizes at the Maria Canals Piano Competition (Barcelona) and the Viotti Piano Competition (Vercelli), and was a laureate at the Busoni Piano Competition. In recent years, Ms Filjak has performed with esteemed orchestras including The Cleveland Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, Barcelona Symphony, Bilbao Symphony and the Granada Symphony; the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, the Staatskapelle Weimar; the Israel Chamber Orchestra as well as the Orchestre Symphonique de Nancy. For this release she has chosen works by Bach arr. Liszt, Schumann, and Scriabin.

“Who would I need to be to be able to talk about a man who is still growing…” (Adam Zagajewski: “The late Beethoven”) Margarita Höhenrieder and I have known it all our lives: the elucidations of Carl Czerny or Rudolf Kolisch, the latest Urtext editions that will lead us to “faithfulness to the text”, the disquisitions from Romain Rolland to Eleonore Büning – we read, we discuss, it all seems helpful and necessary. At the end of the day it is the mature individual, the serious exponent, who makes the decision led by the promptings of conscience, and who simultaneously senses this “growing” of which Zagajewski speaks. We climb a steep path, in order to approach Beethoven more closely. The summit of this path is visible, but not attainable. That is why we keep returning to this path, endless as it is. Beethoven lives in us, as he changes, as we change. Life aspires to art, art is a way forward, life is our way forward. Beethoven changes us through his “growth”. We grow with him!

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.

The Geneva Chamber Orchestra has always ardently championed renowned Geneva composers such as Ernest Bloch, Frank Martin, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Xavier Dayer or Michael Jarrell. Geneva-based cellist Estelle Revaz has been artist-in-residence to the Geneva Chamber Orchestra since 2017-2018. For her second release on Solo Musica, BACH & FRIENDS - a musical dialogue between Bach’s Solo Cello Suites and works by major contemporary composers – she commissioned a new piece from Geneva composer Xavier Dayer. In the context of her residency, the choice of Frank Martin’s works for cello and orchestra was obvious, all the more so as Dutch musical director Arie van Beek provided a link between the composer’s Swiss origins and the Netherlands, his adopted country. Adding an original piece by Xavier Dayer to the programme seemed another obvious choice. Cantus II for solo cello resulted from a most fruitful collaboration between composer and performer and Xavier Dayer’s international profile fully justified this unique programme combination.

The guitarist Aljaž Cvirn and the cellist Isabel Gehweiler have been performing as a duo since 2016, making the cello-guitar repertoire known to a wider audience. Both musicians have won prizes in numerous competitions and triumphed together as a duo in the Paola Ruminelli Competition in 2017. The distinctive combination of the two instruments creates a magical, refined intimacy that is worthy of a chamber ensemble. Although original compositions are rare, a number of arrangements, including that of Franz Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata for cello and guitar, have become staple pieces for the duo. The duo’s current concert repertoire includes sonatas by Franz Schubert, Antonio Vivaldi and Radamés Gnattali. On this release, the two musicians approach the complex sonata genre from a great variety of stylistic angles, with their two instruments imparting a sea of tone colors on a comprehensive journey through different styles and performance practices.

For Russian musicians, the romances of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov have always been a test of their artistic maturity. The very name of the genre carries a great many shades of meaning in Russian, denoting what at times are very varied forms of musical utterance. The vocal chamber works by these two composers, who are usually mentioned in the same breath as luminaries of Russian music, really do exhibit the vast range in artistic expression of their creators. You listen to a recording by the young musicians Lena Belkina and Natalia Sidorenko, who have begun the difficult journey along the road that leads to a perfect blend of tone and the discovery of a personal inflexion in these diminutive, yet complex masterpieces. It is significant that the mezzo-soprano Lena Belkina - for whom Russian, with it's awkward intonation, is a mother tongue - lives and works in Austria, Germany, Italy and France. This has given her an awareness that romances by great Russian composers are part of a worldwide musical heritage. There are several themes running through the romances brought together on this disc that pose demanding artistic challenges for their performers. Spring: from tender green leaves that have barely sprouted to luxuriant blooms of flowering lilac, rushing streams and the burble of the nightingale's song. Night: descending on us with it's unexpected warmth, sometimes stifling, sometimes melancholy, giving rise even in the midst of a storm to cradle songs, serenades and dreams of a happy life, which often dissipate on awakening. Love: past and future, lamented and desired, 'familiar to everyone and eternally new', as one of the romances puts it.

With his extraordinary pianistic talents, Fazil Say has been touching audiences and critics alike for more than twenty-five years, in a way that has become rare in the increasingly materialistic and elaborately organized classical music world. Concerts with this artist are something different. They are more direct, more open, more exciting; in short, they go straight to the heart. On the album now being released by Solo Musica together with the casalQuartett “Ballads & Quintets” there are two works by Fazil Say in addition to the Piano Quintet in E flat major op. 44 by Schumann. The casalQuartett, which has won numerous awards, has developed itself a unique sound and style that sheds new light on the heyday of the string quartet. The 3 Ballads op. 12 for Piano Quintet were originally solo piano ballads, which were rearranged especially for this publication for piano quintet. The piano quintet "The Moving Mansion" breathes new life into stories of the past. The background is a spectacular tale about the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The motto of this new release of Schubert’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 7 in E-major might be “On to new horizons!” In general, this phrase has positive connotations, and it offers an apt description for the sparkling innovative force driving forward Symphony No. 3 in D-major. Here, Schubert is still in a state of experimentation characterized by youthful energy, having overcome the teething troubles which plagued the previous Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2. Does the phrase, however, also apply to the completion of the score fragment of Symphony No. 7 in E-major? One has to admit that the answer is: yes and no. On the one hand, the slow introduction of the Seventh in E-major sounds like something perfectly new (and something newly perfect), on the other, there may have been reasons why Schubert, who impatiently began composing straight into the sketched-out score, left the symphony a mere skeleton. Even in a version completed by another hand, this work is worth exploring, as it builds a bridge from the carefree Symphony No. 6 to Schubert’s late works, the Unfinished Symphony and the Great Symphony in C-major. Two departures for new horizons – and they are two different horizons – are what we seek to document with this recording.

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 ...

This valuable box combines all three previously released, worldwide highly acclaimed CDs Dimensionen World, Otherworld and the CD Innerworld, awarded with the Opus Klassik 2020 in Germany, with an additional newly recorded production NewWorld with 7 newly recorded songs sung by the unique soprano Marlis Petersen and accompanied by her long-time accompanist Stephan Matthias Lademann.

In 2019 she was seen and heard in new opera productions of "Salome" and "The Dead City" in Munich and she was Artist in Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Petrenko. In 2021 she will be on an extensive European tour with the Lied Program of Dimensions.

Four CDs take us there and invite us to wander like a protagonist through different chapters of being.

Carl Loewe, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Franz Liszt, but also Hans Sommer, Bruno Walter, Wilhelm Stenhammer, Reynaldo Hahn and many others are our musical companions on this journey into the dimensions and back to oneself... Be HUMAN again in the SONG!

Zoltan & Peter Katona write: “A couple of years ago we were invited to play a Hollywood themed programme in Grafenegg/Austria. We quickly arranged a handful of well-known film music pieces and performed them along with some original compositions for two guitars by M. C. Tedesco, a prolific film music composer in the forties and fifties. We couldn’t omit the king of gypsy jazz: Django Reinhardt, whose compositions often enliven Hollywood films. The concert was a huge success and we received an unusually high number of requests for a film music themed record. From this, our Hollywood and Swing album was borne. Some of our choices of repertoire might seem over ambitious, especially when reducing the whole orchestral sound to two guitars. We hope nevertheless, that our interpretation of these iconic Hollywood film scores like “The Deer Hunter” or the beautiful tunes from the “West Side Story“ will provide the listener with as much pleasure as we had playing them.”

The music for CHOROS made for texts from the 7th to 5th centuries BC came about through an intensive approach to the ancient world of sound: the instruments reconstructed by Paul J. Reichlin formed the basis of the music. These are the result of over 20 years of intensive collaboration between an instrument maker and a music archeologist. Instrument parts in various museums, countless vase paintings and reliefs from the period 700 to 500 BC served as sources, as well as literary documents. Another important source of knowledge as to how ancient Greek music might have sounded are the peculiarities of the ancient Greek language, which allow conclusions to be drawn about the music. This extraordinary album for the revival of dramatic choirs of Greek classical music follows earlier projects by the Ensemble Melpomen such as Olympionikais (Pindar’s Olympian Odes) for the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Athens or Sappho and Melpomen, music for an Athens symposium, which have already been released on album.

Estelle Revaz is entering the "Hall of the Greats". This is how the press describes Estelle Revaz's playing when she joined Gautier Capuçon and the Armin Jordan's Camerata in the Vivaldi Double Concerto. Revaz is a 27-year old cellist from Switzerland, debuting her first recording with Solo Musica. The album features solo cello works by J.S. Bach and their reflections in selected repertoire of contemporary composers. Estelle Revaz belongs to the leading cellists of her generation, received several important prizes and is performing worldwide with great success as a soloist and chamber musician, as well. Since 2015 Revaz is a member of the prestigious "Forum of the 100" which shows off those who represent the future of Switzerland. The cello Revaz plays is by A.T. Fiorini and the bow by J. Eury.

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.

Ever since it was founded, the Swiss chamber ensemble Trio Fontane has consisted of Andrea Wiesli , Noëlle Grüebler and Jonas Kreienbühl. The trio was formed in 2002 and received instruction from Ulrich Koella and Stephan Goerner (Carmina Quartet) at the Musikhochschule in Zurich. The ensemble was judged the best piano trio at the 2007 Migros Culture Percentage chamber music competition and accepted into the “Young Musicians” artist exchange. The three performers received further support from the Thiébaud-Frey Foundation, the Hans Schaeuble Foundation and the International Herzogenberg Society. The Music Department of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich was set up in 1971 and rapidly established itself as an academic collection of European status. Alongside large holdings of printed and recorded music, the Department is home to one of the world’s largest collections of Wagneriana and now serves as a major repository of Swiss music manuscripts from the past 200 years. The Central Library wishes to put the materials entrusted to it to the best possible use in many different ways. Accordingly, it has begun a series of releases with music from its acquisitions, from tenor songs by Zwingli to music of the late 20th century. It also runs its own lunchtime concert series Mittagsmusik im Predigerchor in which each programme features at least one work that is held in the Central Library as a manuscript, first edition or early printed document. On the album you can hear the New Year's pieces of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich: the Piano Trio op. 20 by Hans Huber and the Piano Trio op. 1 by Hermann Goetz.

Whether as a solo instrument or as part of the orchestra, today the saxophone seldom appears in concert halls and opera houses. Nonetheless, before it found its true home, it was heard in classical music. Here, Schulte-Burnert skillfully presents three particularly brilliant and virtuosic concertos by John Williams, Michael Nyman and Andrei Eshpai.

Yury Kunets is a Russian composer, musician, and producer. Kunets began composing while studying in a public school. From the late 80's on, he wrote lots of songs for different bands and solo artists. From 2004 Yury was involved in several musical TV projects as a producer. Along with author and director Maxim Kapitanovsky, he created two music films: Blame it all on the Beatles. By 2011 Yury Kunets had accumulated a considerable repertoire of instrumental pieces. In collaboration with award-winning American conductor Lee Holdridge and British recording producer Christopher Alder, Yury began recording a series of symphonic music works. In 2011, the first pieces were recorded in Krakow with the Wroclaw Score Orchestra. After receiving positive reactions, Yury decided to continue recording with Holdridge and Alder. By the end of 2014 he had recorded several new compositions in Warsaw. Yury Kunets' music combines elements of classical music, jazz and pop music. In his symphonic compositions melody and romance work to reflect the author's inner energies. ''The music itself exhibits a very lyrical character, through which I was trying to convey my own understanding of life and my state of mind. It's the result, so to speak, of my philosophical reflections, littles tories about our being surrounded by nature, which is intimately connected in turn with our own emotional lives...'' (Yury Kunets)

We're worried by it, stressed out from it, frightened of it - and yet we're fascinated by it. Chaos has always been perceived as a threat, but also as the foundation of life. Various creation stories explain how the world arose out of disorder, out of "mayhem". In like manner, it is anarchic spirits in particular that are credited with the ability to create masterpieces of creative art. This conception was perhaps most neatly expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche: "You must have chaos within you, if you are to give birth to a dancing star." The present album is made up of works which, if you like, harbour the sound of chaos. Originally written for a wide variety of instruments, these pieces are arranged here for string quartet and are connected by improvised interludes - linking passages for which the Hungarian composer Samu Gryllus has provided the basis. The Chaos String Quartet emerged from the iconic violist joke: "Well-established, world-famous string quartet looking for a new first violin, second violin... and cellist." That's exactly how it happened. On Cornwall's rugged coast, during a Prussia Cove masterclass, after an illuminating lesson, a sight-reading session, and a candlelit dinner, Sara invited Susanne to form a quartet. After that first conversation, it took some time to find two other brave musicians, both beyond their mid-twenties, who were willing to embark on the exciting, sometimes complex, and risky adventure that is a string quartet. Fortunately, Eszter and Bas joined soon after, with great enthusiasm. As usual, naming proved a challenge. Some suggested using the first violinist's surname; others, a Greek god. A few warned, "Don't start with A - there are too many." Then came a provocative idea: why not call it Chaos? Furthermore, the quartet enjoys inspiring the next generation, sharing it's experience as Young Artists in Residence at Vienna's University of Music and Performing Arts, cheekily sparking a little chaos among the artists of tomorrow. Their recognition as BBC New Generation Artists (2023-2025) and regular appearances at venues like Wigmore Hall, Musikverein, and Concertgebouw illuminate a journey where unpredictability becomes inspiration-reminding us that from the origins of chaos can emerge music of unique order and profound beauty.

Bachkantaten - broken eyes