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.

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.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg not only housed famous art collections, which were made accessible to the public after the October Revolution, but also hosted glamorous musical events. Catherine the Great had the Hermitage Theatre built, which still stands to this day, and the operas that were magnificently staged there were central to courtly festivities. The idea for this album came in conjuunction with Claire Genewein's elevation to Doctor of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Leiden in teh Netherlands in June 2014. In her thesis, she showed that in 18th century Italy, instrumental music was rehearsed with the aid of textual reflections - a method which, over time, was almost completely lost and which is hardly practiced today. This album documents the tradition of the mutual interaction between vocal and instrumental music and makes this stimulating impetus audible.

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.

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.

With this first album, Islam Manafov connects with his listeners through the works of the Romantic genius, Chopin, with whom he has felt a close emotional tie since his childhood. Using his immense palette of nuances, he takes his listeners on a journey beyond time wtih Chopin's works that may be considered his most difficult, both technically and musically, with their differing moods, at times wild, at times childish, at times rebellious and at times, full of longing... Islam Manafov was born in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, he studied at the Baku Music School and won 1st place prize in the Azerbaijan Young Pianists Competition, attracting international acclaim. As a "People's Artist" of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Manafov continues his artistic life as apianist, conductor and composer, while working as a Professor at Baku Music Academy and Yeditepe University in Istanbul.

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.

Yury Kunets (*1957) is a Russian composer, musician, and producer. Kunets began composing while studying in a public school. From the late 80s on he wrote many 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 (›Rossiya‹ state TV channel) and Don’t Shoot The Musicians (2007). By 2011 Yury Kunets had accumulated a considerable repertoire of instrumental pieces. In collaboration with award-winning American conductor Lee Holdridge (two Grammys and eight Emmys) and British recording producer Christopher Alder (ten Grammys), Yury began recording a series of symphonic music works. In 2011 the first pieces were recorded in Kraków 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. Yury Kunets: ''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, little stories about our being surrounded by nature, which is intimately connected in turn with our own emotional lives…''

Classical Music

Pushing boundaries, daring to experiment and breaking new ground: through it's extraordinary interpretations of arrangements and commissioned works, Ensemble Clazzic has found a musical language all it's own. Sometimes filigree and playful, sometimes virtuosic or melancholic, but always rousing and unique. Four artists with roots in different musical genres find unity on stage, a melange of different styles and cultures. Baroque meets jazz, faithfulness to musical notation meets improvisation, beauty of sound meets new playing techniques. Founded in 2009 by flutist Martina Silvester and pianist Susanna Klovsky, the ensemble has since made a name for itself. The Russian-Israeli composer Uri Brener dedicated a suite to the ensemble that seems to have been written for them. Classical flute themes, for example, appear in a new, never-before-heard context. Accompanied by the grooving sound of the double bass, restructured by the rhythm of the drums and commented on by the sometimes jazzy, sometimes classically sparkling sound carpet of the piano. Chamber music with rules, but without a corset.

Recorded with the Budapest Symphonic Orchestra and mastered at the Abbey Road Studios in London, "The Power of Passion" contains eleven songs carefully selected for this CD. The album contains the world's only sung version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, entitled "Morir d'amor", arranged by Marianna for voice and orchestra. In addition, the album offers reinterpretations of famous soundtracks scores including "The Thorn Birds", "Love Story", "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "The Godfather", among others. Marianna Cataldi, singer-songwriter and composer from Taranto, Italy, is known for her unique, innovative vocal style between pop and opera. Her soprano voice is well suited for classical and non-classical music, between which she is most capable of easily and winningly switching.

Johannes X. Schachtner, after studying composition (with Prof. Jan M�ller-Wieland, Rudi Spring and Prof. Hans-J�rgen von Bose) and orchestral conducting (with Prof. Bruno Weil) in Munich and benefiting from scholarships spent in Bamberg (Villa Concordia) and Paris, now works as a freelance conductor and composer. His extensive compositional works are performed by internationally renowned soloists such as Julia Fischer, Matthias H�fs, Jan-Philipp Schulze, Salome Kammer and the conductor Ulf Schirmer. He has also been commissioned to compose many works, by the Munich Biennale, for the Leopold Mozart competition and the Kronberg Academy Festival, among others. Johannes X. Schachtner has been acknowledged many times in competitions for his work regularly featured in portrait concerts and documented on many recordings. In 2013 he received a number of awards, including the Music Bursary of the city of Munich and in 2014 the Bavarian Music Bursary. This release features his "Music for Brass and Keys."

For me, tradition does not mean persistence, but transformation and growth. It might seem that a composer who still pays homage to tonality remains in such tradition-boundness out of comfort. It turns out, however, that the pursuit of tonal order constantly challenges him with new questions and decisions for which there are no recipes. With his commitment to tonality, M�ller-Z�rich seemed to justify itself at a time when the avant-garde after the Second World War vilified all sound and harmony. In fact, however, his works are neither epigonal nor even retrogressive, but have their very own tone, which, a quarter of a century after his death, must be rediscovered. His large-scale string works (quintet with 2 violas 1919 & quartet 1921) are lush, colorful sound paintings full of passion and sophistication that can compete with Reger, Mahler and young Strauss. The later string trio from 1950 shines as a virtuoso, neoclassical bravura piece. With these three first recordings on album, casalQuartett and Razvan Popovici set a magnificent sounding monument to the great Swiss.

The duo's second album on Solo Musica celebrates the song repertoire of women composers from Romanticism to Contemporary Music with 24 songs by 24 women composers. The Swiss soprano Franziska HEINZEN and British-Polish-German pianist Benjamin MEAD set out to research the work of women composers for Clara SCHUMANN's bicentenary in 2019 - and discovered a valuable treasure of relatively unknown music. Beginning with a life journey through refreshing spring feelings, the album goes on to describe painful hours of loneliness and uncertainty as well as anxious premonitions of death and dark fears. Five examples of self-confident female characters, whose experiences are concluded with wiser, reflections on life, as seen retrospectively.

A special, connecting and autobiographical element for this recording is the beautiful city of Salzburg, a place steeped in legend and music history, which became the hometown of all those involved in the production - from the composer to the conductor, the soloist to the orchestra musicians and the orchestra director - at least for an important period of their lives; in the actual as well as in the artistic sense. In addition to well-known repertoire, Rafael Fingerlos' recording also offers delightful trouvailles such as the rarely performed aria of Allazim from Zaide "Nur mutig mein Herze! ", the little concert aria Un bacio di mano and even a veritable world premiere recording: the so rarely performed and extremely Mozartian-daredevil cabaletta of the Conte Aria, comprising fourteen (!) high Gs, which Mozart composed especially for the Conte singer in the Viennese Figaro premiere. Beautiful, virtuosic, wild and spectacular. The following applies to this recording: less is more. Less editing, always opting for natural and musical phrasing. And the aim is always to achieve a sound that is as close as possible to the live experience and that can also be reproduced in concert at any time. As authentic and above all as natural as possible.