This CD is the result of the 12th International Competition "Franz Schubert and Modern Music" (FS & MM), which took place in February 2025 and was organised by the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. The Trio Bronte won 1st prize in the piano trio category with the repertoire on the recording. The Trio was founded in Berlin in 2022 and consists of German-Italian violinist Chiara Sannicandro, Bulgarian pianist Lili Bogdanova, and American cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins. After playing together for only a few months, the Trio Bronte won 1st prize at the 2023 Ilmari Hannikainen International Piano Chamber Music Competition in Finland. The trio grew up surrounded by the passionate and turbulent novels of the Bronte sisters and named themselves after them, inspired by their passion for storytelling, their intelligence and their sociability.

The first time Margarita Hohenrieder heard the Finnish pianist Antti Siirala, she was a member of the jury for the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in May 1997. Many years later, Antti Siirala was appointed Professor for Piano at the University of Music and Theatre Munich - a happy coincidence that gave both the opportunity to make music together. The very first time they played together, we sensed a special musical relationship: a similar ideal of sound and a very deliberate way of listening to one another. Embarking with a fellow-musician on an artistic journey - such as making Mozart sound convincing on modern instruments, searching for the right tempo, rhythm, vivid phrasing, thrilling dynamics - is a highly creative process and certainly an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As an exciting contrast to their Mozart interpretations, they offer the South American sounds and rhythms of the bandoneon and the typically wistful melodies of the tango Cristian en el Cafe Tortoni Buenos Aires by Francoise Choveaux - a quite different but equally stimulating challenge. Hohenrieder also was introduced to the great bandoneon player on our recording, Sebastien Innocenti, by Francoise Choveaux. Margarita Hohenrieder is always treading unusual paths. Together with her friend, the painter Bernd Zimmer, she holds creative performances: "2 left hands," in which Bernd Zimmer creates a picture with his left hand while Margarita Hohenrieder plays works exclusively for the left hand. The well-known jazz musician Ingfried Hoffmann, Hjalmar Hegi Ragnarsson from Iceland and Francoise Choveaux wrote compositions especially for this performance. The cover of this CD and the booklet feature the painting "Ast", 2022 by Bernd Zimmer. The tango "Cristian en el Tortoni Buenos Aires" is dedicated to Margarita Hohenrieder.

There's no question that the 18th century was entirely focused on the vocal achievements of the great singing stars, both male and female - on both sopranos like Bordoni and Cuzzoni and on castrati like Farinelli and Carestini. They were equivalent to our superstars of today: alter egos of "their" composers, with whom they had fostered a virtually symbiotic relationship. In addition to these singers' technical virtuosity-there's a reason that Baroque arias are among the most difficult in the operatic repertoire-these sometimes almost mythical figures fascinated audiences with their beauty of tone and legato lines. They were oftentimes the absolute rulers of European opera stages - audiences worshipped them as godlike figures, their fees drove many a house to financial ruin, and their vocal artistry was so spectacular that even today, long after their voices have passed, their names are still uttered with reverence and admiration: The great vocal virtuosos of the Baroque period live on in the music that great composers wrote for their voices. Hasse was one of the founders of pre-classicism, which combined Neapolitan vocality with orchestral density, which undoubtedly reflects his German roots. The other German giant of opera seria was George Frideric Handel, who spent most of his life in London and adopted English nationality. Like Hasse, Handel also worked at the Hamburg Opera, where he wrote his first opera score, Almira (1705), at the age of nineteen. The recording was made with one of the world's most important baroque orchestras, the Wiener Akademie Orchester under the direction of Jeremy Joseph.

This extraordinary album by the artist Agata Maria Raatz combines the best of two musical worlds: Interpretation and composition. The artist is not only a soloist, but also the creator of a new musical work - Reflexe 1766. The album forms a sound bridge between Mozart's time and our present, a musical reflection on past and present experiences. Inspired by a real journey through Switzerland in the summer of 2024 in the historical footsteps of the Mozart family, this album creates a multi-sensory sound journey. The experiences of this route have been deeply incorporated into the composition. A special highlight: the soloist wrote her own cadenzas for both recorded violin concertos. They are artistic statements, personal reflections on Mozart's music. In terms of sound, the recording moves between past and present: historically informed playing meets modern instruments. This subtle balance of tradition, authenticity and innovation creates a touching sound language and an immersive listening experience. Mozart & Modern not only invites you to listen, but also to experience it. The violin becomes a narrator between the times, an echo of Mozart's operatic voice and the voice of a contemporary artist. This album is no ordinary classical music product. The Swiss Mozart Route is artistically anchored in the European cultural heritage, in which QR codes, places and history have just as much a place as water, light, movement and silence. Mozart & Modern is a concept album that needs to be experienced - Agata Maria Raatz takes us on this extraordinary musical journey.

In 2014, the Museum Kleines Klingental in Basel presented the exhibition "Hans Huber and Basel's musical life around 1900". In 2015, the exhibition provided the impetus for the founding of the concert series "Basel composes" at the Museum Kleines Klingental. The idea was to create a platform for chamber music by composers who were born, lived or worked in Basel. Since then, numerous ensembles have performed works by well-known, unknown and forgotten composers from Basel. At the centre of this anniversary recording are compositions by Hans Huber, which were the starting point of the concert series, played by Andrea Wiesli, who has been particularly committed to promoting Basel's musical culture in the Klingental with the Trio Fontane. On the occasion of the exhibition, a concert series was organised as part of the accompanying programme with music by Hans Huber, by composers who influenced his music or were his pupils and friends. To realise this chamber music series, the Museum Kleines Klingental, advised by the pianist Andrea Wiesli, decided to acquire a historical Bluthner grand piano from around 1875. The Museum Kleines Klingental is located in the founding building of the Klingental Dominican convent dating from 1274. In 1929, the Cantonal Monument Preservation Office moved into the former convent. It founded the Museum Kleines Klingental in 1939. The large refectory, the former convent kitchen, the small refectory as well as the "Schaffnei" and the roof truss from the construction period of 1274 are particularly impressive.

In this recording, Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner has compiled a thrilling selection of contemporary works for violin and orchestra by female composers. She describes her vision thus: "I always saw Antonio Vivaldi as an important role model - as solo violinist, composer and mentor of orphaned girls who took instruction in the violin from him. He founded the orchestra of the Ospedale della Piet� in Venice with them, drawing connoisseurs and amateurs from all over Europe and beyond to hear his celebrated violinists. During my long period in Seoul as a practising as a professor of violin, violin soloist and composer. I heard and saw the ballet Giselle to music by Adolphe Adam and was enchanted by an orchestration completely new to me: the instruments of the classical symphony orchestra were augmented by a few selected instruments with silk strings and rosewood such as are familiar in east Asia. I found this combination of tone colours exceptionally attractive and resolved to try out this blend of sounds for myself at home in Europe and bring them to life in an ensemble of my own with selected virtuosos." Violin soloist and composer Viktoria Elisabeth Kaunzner is hailed by the press as a "cross-cultural traveller" for her idea of merging Eastern and Western traditions in music. It is one of her goals to "to feed the channels of the European ear with new things in an intelligent manner". "Like many composers who make music themselves as practitioners, she has a deeper insight into the music than others (American Record Guide)", a combination she pursues with passion that revives the tradition of the composing virtuosos of yesteryear." For that very reason she aims to encourage composers male and female to write new works for violin and orchestra.

The recording is characterised by an uncompromising fidelity to the work, which makes it possible to experience Richard Strauss' masterpiece in all it's facets. All of the passages that are usually cancelled, which are essential for understanding the work and it's power, have been opened up. Richard Strauss himself emphasised in his memoirs how important words and singing were to him in the opera. He reported that the conductor Ernst von Schuch unleashed the orchestra at the dress rehearsal to such an extent that Strauss had to muffle him in order to maintain a balance with the voices. This admonition accompanied Julien Salemkour and Barbara Krieger as they rehearsed Elektra - a process for which they made intensive use of the covid period. The production was an extraordinary endeavour and an impressive example of creative solutions in difficult times. When it was hardly possible to realise larger music projects, the team decided on an unusual approach: The orchestra was to be recorded first, and the soloists would sing their parts later to the existing orchestral recording - and so a number of international artists came together under the most difficult corona conditions at different times in different places for the recordings. Barbara Krieger took on the title role - an artist who has recently been celebrated in particular as Elektra, Fidelio-Leonore and Isolde. Other renowned Strauss interpreters such as Astrid Weber, Sanja Anastasia and Jochen Kupfer complete the ensemble. Tenor Sotiris Charalampous makes his impressive debut as Aegisth. The internationally acclaimed conductor Julien Salemkour gives the singers unprecedented space to sing and breathe, while at the same time unfolding a tonal opulence that does justice to the origins of this score in all it's facets. Experience an Elektra that impresses with it's unleashed orchestral sound as well as it's extraordinary text comprehensibility - a combination that rarely succeeds.

What makes Ysaye's solo sonatas so extraordinary is the richness of their harmonies, offering endless possibilities to explore a vast spectrum of contrasts in sound projection and violinistic effects each time you engage with them. To me, these works are like a boundless ocean, where every dive reveals something new, enveloping you in an infinite palette of colors and emotions. The experience of both playing and listening to them is nothing short of breathtaking, as they invite you into a world of perpetual discovery, where the music seems to breathe and transform with every interpretation. Elvin Hoxha Ganiyev The Belgian violinist and composer Eugene Ysaye (1858-1931) created Six Sonatas for Solo Violin, Op. 27 in 1923. His intention was to leave a legacy for future generations that would testify to the performance techniques of his time, with particular emphasis on the evolution of musical language since the era of Johann Sebastian Bach. As he wrote: Indeed, the Six Sonatas are dedicated to violinists of European origin, in order: Hungarian, French, Romanian, Austrian, Belgian, and Spanish. However, Ysaye's project was essentially detached from national or Eurocentric concerns, as the dedications were meant to commemorate the greatest musicians of the younger generation. The structure of the collection and the number of works reference Bach's Sonatas (three pieces) and Partitas for Solo Violin (three works), which Ysaye and his contemporaries regarded as a significant point of reference in violin literature. References to Bach, so evident both in the entire collection and in the individual sonatas, are not, however, the only ones that can be found in Op. 27. There are also notable influences from romantic song and mid-19th-century operatic arias, interwoven with references to medieval sequences and the virtuosic style of Niccol� Paganini. When composing the Op. 27 Sonatas, Ysaye was withdrawing from concert life. Therefore, this collection serves as a unique kind of musical testament, commenting on the performance achievements of his era while also anticipating the further development of violin literature. Particularly striking are the recurring motifs of warning and disruption, provocatively foreshadowing changes in the musical language of the second half of the 20th century.

The composer Hans Schaeuble was born in Arosa on 31 May 1906 and died in Zurich on 19 December 1988. His parents were both from Germany. He created 26 operas of all genres and instrumentations, totalling 51 works. All four of these works were premiered before his death on 19 December 1988. He spent the last 20 years of his life revising his oeuvre, sometimes several times, but always marginally: - Wealthy from birth, he established the Hans Schaeuble Foundation to support young musicians and musicologists, who primarily take on the works of the founder. The Music for Clarinet and String Orchestra op. 46 from 1961 is the middle of three wind concertos that Schaeuble apparently composed according to plan between 1959 and 1962. The symphonic-concertante Music for string orchestra with obbligato piano op. 33, composed in January and February 1949, is Schaeuble's third of a total of five works for piano and orchestra. The Music for 2 Violins and String Orchestra op. 18 is the first of only two violin concertos from Hans Schaeuble's pen. Schaeuble wrote the only 'real' one, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra op. 24, at the beginning of the war and completed it on 15 December 1940 in Arosa. Composed in Berlin in 1935, the present music op. 18 was published by Bote & Bock in Berlin in 1936, according to Schaeuble. However, no copy of it has survived either in the estate or in the libraries; worse still, the autograph score and the parts were apparently stored by the publisher and were destroyed during the war.

The view into "infinity" gives freedom! Man lives in his narrow temporal space and, with his mind focussed only on the supposedly 'real' sensory world, grasps only the outside of his being: he loses himself in the multiplicity of things. A feeling for the cosmic interconnectedness of all beings has been lost. In the prison of materialism, man cannot free himself from such polarity - that is why he is ruled by strife, war, egoism, lust for power and possessiveness. The three musical works on this CD offer a glimpse into the liberating infinity beyond things: In THE BIRDS, the world of birds is evoked - even according to principles of mystical alchemy - which are evolutionarily related to dinosaurs and have always been associated with deities, divination and boundless celestial freedom. In FATAL HARMONIES, the deadly harmonies of the Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo, the exaggerated disruption of a contradictory existence is presented, death and negative energies are diametrically opposed to bold genius - extreme light begets extreme shadow in polarity. THE BELLS traces the archetype of bells, whose sound has been waking people up for thousands of years, leading them to transcendence and infinity. With the end of material thinking, of earthly persistence in polarity, judgement and comparison, PEACE could come - because in the face of eternity and infinity, good-evil or mine-his have lost all meaning. This is why the theme of 'peace' takes centre stage twice on this CD - in the concluding 'Dona nobis Pacem' and in the middle movement 'The Swan - The White' of the violin concerto, because this is based on the peace hymn 'El Can't des Ocells' (Song of the Birds) by the Catalan cellist and humanist Pablo Casal, which he played as an encore to every concert throughout his life.

Music of Johann Sebastian Bach was always fundamental for Aliya Turetayeva. From the first listening of his Mass in B minor in her childhood, his music has accompanied her through her life. Almost every day she starts with the music of Bach in order to be "well-tuned" throughout the day. She always felt connected with eternity through his music and shared many happy and tragic moments during the years listening to his output. Bach's music was always a symbol of faith for the artist - many times in life his music gave Aliya Turetayeva strength to live further and not to give up; it will remain to be a symbol of faith for her, to be her Credo. Aliya Turetayeva was born in 1986 in Almaty, Kazakhstan and received her first piano lesson at the age of five. Aliya moved to Cologne, Germany to continue her studies at the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Koln as a student of Professor Pavel Gililov. She was awarded her Masters degree in 2010. As well as her work as a soloist, Aliya Turetayeva is a dedicated chamber musician. She recorded chamber music works by G. Crumb and A. Schnittke for WDR Radio Cologne. She also completed 2013 her postgraduate studies at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg under the tutelage of Professor Gililov with the highest mark.

The recording of Mozart's Piano Concertos No. 20 and 24 is intended as a contrasting twin project to the first recording of No. 15 and 21 released on the Solo Musica label in 2024. The two recordings are like the "yin" and the "yang," the moon and the sun, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of Mozart's creativity. As a pianist, Zhen Chen wants to demonstrate his ability to develop and perform works of different artistic modes. Furthermore, since the pianist and the orchestra remain the same in the two recordings and only the baton has been changed-from the hand of the Austrian conductor Thomas Rosner to the French conductor Paul Meyer-these two recordings are an interesting pair, allowing listeners to savor the difference in the artistic direction of the two conductors. No. 15 and 21 are, in his opinion, the quintessential Mozart piano concertos in major key. They are gleeful, humorous, and uplifting, while No. 20 and 24 are the rare gems of Mozart's multi-movement piano works in minor keys. Out of a total of 27, he composed only two piano concertos in minor keys. They are among the few works by Mozart dominated by an unsettling and gloomy sense.

The biographies and the music of Debussy, Ravel, and de Falla contain multiple hidden reflections, many elements that mirror each other. These reflections are so clear-cut that it becomes difficult in many cases to make out the original image. Music inspired by Iberia and the piano as an instrument were certainly common ground, on which the three composers engaged in a lively artistic exchange. The Romantic piano repertoire has appropriated music of the most diverse origins. Considering the particular instrument that originally inspired it, we could almost call the result regeneration rather than mere transcription, as if the music were reborn in it's pure form. The works included on this CD showcase guitar, harp and piano in just such a complementary relationship. Indeed, Maurice Ravel personally noted in his score of Miroirs for the pianist Vlado Perlemuter, that he should imitate the guitar or the harp in certain passages. In his article La guitara, Manuel de Falla in his turn writes of how marvellously Debussy depicts the artistic qualities of the instrument, without ever having used the guitar at all in his works. Having grown up with the Romantic tradition, many pianists of the time had difficulties doing justice to the new musical imagery of Symbolism. Chronicles from the time reveal a certain impatience in composers, who required from interpreters a new technique and a different use of the sustaining pedal. Unlike the piano, both guitar and harp emit softer, less defined contours, in keeping with the melancholic and equivocal timbres of Debussy and Ravel. Ever since his student days, Maurizio Grandinetti's main interest has been broadening the musical horizons of his instrument. He is currently soloist, chamber musician and improviser. His career so far has taken him to the most important festivals and concert halls in numerous European countries, Brazil, the USA and China. For 14 years Consuelo Giulianelli was professor for harp at the Stella Matutina Private Music Academy in Feldkirch, Austria. Alongside studies with Mirella Vita and Ursula Holliger, that she completed with distinction, she attended courses by Marielle Nordmann and Pierre Jamet, who premiered the Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp by Claude Debussy.

Margarita Hohenrieder and Julius Berger have known it all their lives: the elucidations of Carl Czerny or Rudolf Kolisch, the latest Urtext editions that will lead them to "faithfulness to the text", the disquisitions from Romain Rolland to Eleonore Buning - they read, they 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. Both climb a steep path, in order to approach Beethoven more closely. The summit of this path is visible, but not attainable. That is why the artists 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!

Mezzo soprano Megan Kahts, born in South Africa, was trained at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where she has been based since 2009. She sings internationally, specialising in the performance of Early and Contemporary music and has won coveted prizes in prestigious competitions. She is both a stage animal and a chamber musician at heart, having begun her musical training as a pianist and having embarked on a childhood singing career as a teenager in South Africa before honing her skills at the heart of the classical music tradition in Europe. The Carestini Ensemble Wien was formed by Megan Kahts out of musician colleagues with whom she has closely worked on various baroque opera and chamber music projects. The ensemble mainly specialises in works composed in the eighteenth century. Handel, Hasse, Gluck, Caldara and other composers composed parts and roles for the voice of the castrato Giovanni Carestini, after whose spirit the ensemble is named. All members of the ensemble are based in Vienna and specialised in Historical Performance Practice, performing on historical instruments.

This CD is the first of three albums of music by Giovanni Benedetto Platti, on which we plan to record all twelve cello sonatas and the harpsichord sonatas Op. 1. We are delighted to have found in Platti an interesting and little-known composer whose music is fascinating to explore. Giovanni Benedetto Platti is a classic example of one of the many underestimated composers of the 18th century. Today, his name is familiar only to specialists and his music known to but a very few, yet his work is well worth discovering. A factotum at the Wurzburg court, he wrote eminently attractive sonatas and concertos for oboe, cello, harpsichord and flute, as well as larger scale works including an interesting Requiem. The twelve cello sonatas have survived in a manuscript dated 1725 from the collection of Count von Schonborn in Wiesentheid. They all have four movements and are characterised, as so often in Platti, by a compact and stringent compositional style. Hardly any single movement takes up more than a transverse page of the score, and many of the slow movements only half a page. Born in South Tyrol, Alex Jellici studied the cello in his home town of Bolzano, then in Florence, Vienna and Zurich under Luca Fiorentini, Giovanni Gnocchi and Orfeo Mandozzi. Further studies in baroque cello and viola da gamba followed under Martin Zeller at the Zurich University of the Arts. Matias Lanz has been organist at the Winterthur Veltheim Reformed Church since 2013. He has also been active as a tango pianist for several years. In 2022, together with bandoneonist Jens Biedermann, he founded Tango Bodegon, a cuarteto tipico dedicated to the performance of traditional Argentinian tango. He has attended tango masterclasses with Roger Helou, Pablo Estigarribia, Leonardo Ferreyra and Rodolfo Mederos.

The Chaos String Quartet, named BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist for 2023-2025, was founded in 2019 based on the principles of chaos in art, science, and philosophy. Having won such prestigious international competitions as ARD (2022), Bordeaux (2022), Bad Tölz (2023), and Haydn (2023), the ensemble is rapidly gaining prominence on the international stage, most notably performing at the Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Bozar (Brussels), and Philharmonie de Paris. Other awards include prizes at the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival 2023, the Bartók World Competition 2021, and the International Premio V. E. Rimbotti in Italy 2020. In addition to its classical concert activities, the quartet is dedicated to developing projects that make the quartet repertoire more accessible and open to a wider audience.

The ensemble completed its studies at the mdw, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, supervised by their mentor Prof. Johannes Meissl, and completed a postgraduate course at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with the Cuarteto Casals. The young musicians received further important musical impulses from artists such as Eberhard Feltz, András Keller, Oliver Wille, and Helmut Lachenmann.

This is the ensemble's first CD on the label of the mdw in Vienna, under the label management of Solo Musica. Works by Joseph Haydn, György Ligeti, and Fanny Hensel were recorded.

Hailed for his “Apollonian virtuosity and sensitive tone” (Online Merker, Germany), multi-award-winning pianist-composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist at prominent music venues in the USA, Europe, and China. These venues include Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall of Lincoln Center, Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, and China National Centre for Performing Arts.

Since its founding in 1952, the Chamber Orchestra Mannheim has been particularly committed to the rediscovery of and care for the Mannheim School, thus acting as a direct descendant of the famous Mannheim Hofkapelle during the times of Prince Elector Carl Theodor (1724–1799). Thanks to Carl Theodor's modern and enlightened thinking, Mannheim and the Palatine Electorate developed into one of the most innovative and forward-thinking regions in Germany and Europe in the realms of science and art during his reign. It was particularly in the area of music that he succeeded in setting new standards by attracting the best composers and instrumentalists of their time – among them Johann Stamitz and his sons, Anton and Carl, Franz Xaver Richter, Ignaz Holzbauer, or Christian Cannabich – to the Mannheim court, who were to pave the way for a new orchestra culture with their work.

Viennese-born Thomas Rösner is in high demand as a conductor for symphonic repertoire as well as opera since he made his debut with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.

Why is the early 19th century still so vividly present in literature, philosophy, music, and art? Why do Beethoven and Schubert continue to dominate many concert programs as well as a considerable volume of contemporary music journalism? German Romanticism was never an arcane hideout for other-worldly escapists; rather, it has to this day remained one of the most popular wellsprings of activity and discussion. So how does Rahel Varnhagen fit into this? From 1790 to 1832, she hosted a famous salon in which she had discussions with and inspired eminent figures in the fields of literature, theater, philosophy, music, politics, and science. Her chains of somewhat unconventional correspondence span thousands of pages. Since Hannah Arendt’s groundbreaking book on Rahel (1933/58), her historical significance as a “pariah”, as an outsider who was constantly in the spotlight, as a woman of Jewish descent and as a (non-publishing) writer has been brought into ever-sharper focus. Pauline, the daughter of a banker by the name of César, was from a very early age admired by many on account of her beauty. She soon went her own way, bore the child of a Russian officer, and became the lover of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, who was also a composer and was later killed in battle, leading his men against the forces of Napoleon. So how can such an exchange of letters work as a stage production? Pauline writes in the way she presumably spoke, constantly switching between her Berlin dialect, a distinctive form of standard German, and a highly adventurous Prussian French with her own spelling rules. Portrayed here by a concert singer, Pauline is allowed to be extravagant, whereas Rahel, who leans more towards straight theatre, is rather more rigid in her spoken and sung idiom. The scenes allow answers to be given straightaway even though the two protagonists do not actually meet until the epilogue. Born in 1943 in Bern (Switzerland), Roland Moser studied composition with Sándor Veress and has degrees in piano and music theory from Bern. In Germany, he undertook further studies in Freiburg and Cologne. From 1969 to 1984, he taught theory and new music at the Winterthur Conservatorium. Until his retirement, he was subsequently professor of composing, orchestration, and music theory at the City of Basel Music Academy. From 1968 onwards, he gained experience with experimental music in the Ensemble Neue Horizonte Bern, most of whose members also compose.

In the Bruckner Year 2024, St. Florian Abbey, with the master's burial place, the famous organ and the world-famous St. Florian Boys' Choir, will become even more of a focus for the international Bruckner fan community than it already is. A special prelude to this was the intermission film of this year's New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, in which two Florian Boys' Choir led an audience of millions through all the Bruckner memorials and in which the choir performed the single release of the moth "Locus iste". Almost every concert of the St. Florian Boys' Choir, which was founded in 1071, includes a work by Anton Bruckner, as the choir is proud to have the "most famous member" in it's history. The "Locus iste" has long since become the secret anthem of the choirboys, and the other great motets such as "Ave Maria", "Os justi" and "Tota pulchra es" are also part of the regular repertoire of the Florian Boys' Choir. All of these works have now been re-recorded under the direction of Markus Stumpner and will be released on CD and digitally on March 1 for the Bruckner Year 2024 under the title "Remembrance". However, not only the master's best-known choral works will be presented, but also rarities: the recently restored Bruckner grand piano, a Bosendorfer built in 1846, which accompanied Bruckner's creative output from 1848 to 1896, will play a special role. Franz Farnberger will play Bruckner's best-known piano piece, "Erinnerung", and accompany another former choirboy, the now internationally renowned countertenor Alois Muhlbacher, in two Bruckner songs. The boys perform the "22nd Psalm" together with the pianist, while an ensemble of former choirboys perform the two male choruses "Um Mitternacht" and "Herbstlied". Franz Farnberger rearranged "Der Lehrerstand", a men's choir whose text is difficult to understand today, into a humorous alternating song by teachers and pupils. This Bruckner CD recorded in St. Florian naturally also features the famous Bruckner organ - masterfully played by the monastery organist Klaus Sonnleitner.

There is only anecdotal evidence of how the composer Hans Schaeuble discovered music. He evidently learnt the piano at an early age: he was writing out pieces of music even in his childhood. For his years in Lausanne, there are copious accounts of his attendance at concerts by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet, which led him to the conclusion that he should be a composer himself. Against the wishes of his parents, particularly his stepfather (his father having died in 1922), he prepared himself for a course of study in music. From no later than 1927 until the end of 1930, he studied piano with Karl Adolf Martienssen and composition with Hermann Grabner at the Landeskonservatorium in Leipzig. Schaeuble moved to Berlin on December 15 or 16, 1930. He was now a freelance composer and remained so until the end of his life; he never held any official position.

The Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra op. 50 of 1967 is Schaeuble’s fifth work for piano and orchestra. His first essay in the form dates from 1931, his first year in Berlin: the Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra op. 9, which remained unperformed. The Concertino for Oboe and String Orchestra op. 44 of 1959 is the first of three wind concertos that Schaeuble composed in succession between 1959 and 1962. On September 9, 1956 he wrote his first note about preliminary studies; on November 11, 1956, he signed off on his Serenade in B flat for String Orchestra op. 42. Although the piece appears to have been a commissioned work, there is no record of any performances.

Joy of discovery and perpetual reaching for new horizons are the traits that best describe the Grammy-winning State Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta Riga. Since its foundation in 2006, the orchestra's artistic director and chief conductor has been Normunds Šne. One can hardly imagine a more devoted champion of neglected and rarely played composers than pianist Oliver Triendl. His tireless commitment – primarily to romantic and contemporary music – is reflected in almost 150 CD recordings. The scope of his repertoire is surely unique, comprising more than 100 piano concertos and hundreds of chamber music pieces. In many cases, he was the first to present these works on stage or to commit them to disc.

When a CD album bears the title SANCTUARY, it is almost obvious that it is in the spirit of the sacred; yes, it is, but not sacred merely in the religious sense; rather sacred and humanist, sacred and pacifist, sacred and pantheist. So sacred and so profane at the same time. Prayers are expressed in all religions - to remain human, to remain in peace, love and peace. This is the one favour that everyone asks from their respective god. And that's the message of all 12 tracks on the album. Because our time demands it of us - to share the values that are most important to human beings. The 12 poems set in music and which are the source of inspiration, mainly come from the beginning of the 20th century, but all reflect expressionism and result from the crucial problems of the last century, which are very relevant today. The music is often inspired by expressionist aesthetics, without borrowing expressionist musical language; I work with stylistic elements that are specific to me. Prayer and the humanist idea are the common thread - always present in my way of constructing programs and my albums, in this case global in nature and universal before becoming intimate; a call from the bottom of the heart like a cry to the gods (plural), to all the gods on earth, so that they can save and preserve us from the abyss of our sins. Albena Petrovic Vratchanska is a Luxembourgish composer of Bulgarian origin and Knight of the Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (2013). She is also honoured with the Silver Medal of Merit from the Union Grand-Duc Adolphe (2017), the Silver Medal from the Union Saint Pie X (2018) and the "2007 Cultural Prize" from the municipality of Hesperange. Anna Bineta Diouf is a German-Senegalese Mezzo-Soprano. On piano we hear the Austrian pianist Eugenia Radoslava. Her CD recordings in the series "Piano-Piano" were among the ten best-selling classical CDs in Germany in 2009.

The tradition of bringing out New Year publications on January 2, “Berchtold’s Day”, goes back as far as the 17th century. Societies andguilds provided printed books, illustrations or music to the young people of the city in return for a financial contribution, which went towards the heating of the society rooms. A 2005 CD of piano music by the Winterthur composer Johann Carl Eschmann, whose documents are held in the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, marked the revival of the old tradition in a new guise.
The New Year release CD 2024 brings together works by six composers, male and female, all of whom except one were born and trained in French-speaking countries. Even Paul Juon had Romanic roots, since his grandfather had emigrated around 1830 from the Swiss canton of Grisons to Russia. Short pieces have been grouped around César Franck’s Sonata in A major: composed between 1880 and 1924, all – except Ernest Bloch’s three lieder movements From Jewish Life (1924), whose Judaistic timbre became Bloch’s trademark – conform to our present-day perception of a rhapsodic fin-de-siècle sound.
The cellist Isabel Gehweiler is a prizewinner of the European Bursary for Young Artists, the Art Prize of the Art Foundation of Baden-Württemberg, the Art Prize of the Markgräfler region; she is also a recipient of grants from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Juilliard School of Music, the Rotary Foundation, the arteMusica Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Saarland region, the Richard Wagner Association, the Covid-19 Grant of the City of Zurich, the Notenstein La Roche Privatbank and the Vontobel Bank. As a composer, Isabel Gehweiler has produced a body of work encompassing chamber music and orchestral compositions, which are regularly performed at international festivals.

The violin, a bowed instrument with four strings, of such perfection that it has focussed the attention of composers from the Baroque to the present day. Apart from the piano, no other instrument has had so many important concertos written for it, from Locatelli and Vivaldi, to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms, among many others. It might seem unimaginable that this instrument with it's one bow on four strings be able to perform polyphonic works from the piano, Lied and orchestral repertoire unaccompanied, but that is precisely what the great virtuosos of the early Romantic period right up to the modern era repeatedly saw as a challenge in their compositions. Paganini, Ernst and their successors pushed the technical possibilities of the violin to the limit. With this CD we present the most important of these works, which are otherwise pigeonholed as salon or encore pieces. The result is musical gems ranging from practically complete Lieder such as the Erlkonig, to Isang Yun's masterful arrangement of The Musical Offering by Bach. Her debut CD "1939" on Solo Musica with the Munich Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kevin John Edusei received worldwide acclaim, including reviews in BBC magazine, The Strad Magazine, Gramophone and the American Record Guide. This new release is the first solo album by violinist Fabiola Kim, hailed by the New York Times as "a brilliant soloist" who plays "with extraordinary precision and intensity". She is an energetic performer and enjoys a wide-ranging career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.

It has long been my wish to record both of Johannes Brahms’s piano concertos for CD. In doing so, I have been able to build upon many experiences that allow me at this point in time to open myself up even more to the essence of these works, which move me to the depths of my being. Both works offer me something incredibly great, something that in my conception of things can hardly be further enlarged. Each of the two concertos fascinates me with its vast wealth of sound, its intensity, above all with its simply infinite emotional range. Highly dramatic developments open out into playful lightness of being. Time and again there are sincerely thoughtful moments, marked by deep serenity. The slow movements of these two concertos particularly fascinate me on account of those passages, which give us a glimpse into what is above and beyond the world we know. The Magyar in me senses many Hungarian influences. My engagement with the two concertos in the course of making the present recordings together with the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen has enabled me to look at the above aspects with new eyes. These are insights that go ever deeper throughout one’s whole life. The process is never complete. The cathedral is too big for that. Andrea Kauten