Continuity. The piece "October" from Tchaikovsky's "Seasons" op. 37 comes from an older recording by Evgeni Koroliov from 1992 (TACET 25). That was the time of the Yugoslav Wars and the collapse of the Soviet Union. I remember that Evgeni Koroliov, who was born in Moscow, spoke during a break in his gentle manner about how this music was for him a reminder of irretrievable times before the Russian revolution. 33 years later, Koroliov speaks as he did then, he has remained true to himself and his playing, the times are just as confused and uncertain. Even the sound is similar. Accordingly, the new recordings on this "Russian" CD are permeated by a similar longing for a better world, which never existed as beautifully as in this music. I am happy and grateful to have been able to accompany this quiet and expressive artist, who enriches the music world so lastingly, on TACET for such a long time. This is already his 26th recording on TACET and the second CD this year, the second of three!

The desire to record all of the works for an instrument already during the lifetime of a composer points to his importance and charisma. Despite the uncertainty: will he write something else? This was also the case with TACET 129, after Erika Haase (1935 - 2013) set herself the life-long task of recording all the pieces for piano by another 'great' of contemporary Hungarian music, Gyorgy Ligeti. Now Gyorgy Kurtag, a master of the miniature almost like Anton Webern. All his works for flute, initiated and congenially played by Markus Bronnimann and friends. The very first note should, no, must contain the whole world. Many of Kurtag's pupils know this only too well, as they often didn't get past the first bars in their lessons. Because he succeeds in this concentration, this evaporation to the essentials, Kurtag only needs a few notes to create a complete little univers in which nothing is missing. The 36 tracks bear ample witness to this!

As all volumes of the complete recording of Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonatas are released on CD, all the booklets also contain texts on the music. Thomas Seedorf has accompanied the series as musicologist from the beginning. In most cases, Christoph Ullrich contributes his own thoughts. Both very different. In each volume, both have a theme that is particularly appropriate to the sonatas collected. In this case, Thomas Seedorf focuses on the music-historical categorisation of Scarlatti, which is particularly interesting in comparison to his two colleagues born in the same year, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Christoph Ullrich devotes himself to the 'being a child' of artists in general, that of Domenico Scarlatti in particular and his own. Both texts are very enriching. Not much more needs to be said about the music. Anyone who has listened to one of the 13 volumes already released knows about the delightful standard of Christoph Ullrich's Scarlatti. Enjoy listening!

This is not a historical recording. Yet mysteriously the music is performed in an interpretation which is historically authentic down to the last detail. The key to this mystery is: The original performer was present at the recent recording session, but not physically: The music is heard on a modern Steinway. Never has music stored in the Welte-Mignon system sounded so "right" or so good. Thanks to TACET's much-praised recording technique, and because the Welte-Mignon memory system and sound production mechanism have now been newly adjusted for the first time by the leading expert in the field - and are thus able to meet TACET's requirements. (Welte-Mignon was invented in 1904.) the Welte-Mignon mystery can now speak to US without distortion.

The Auryns approach the Quartets, which are some of the most complex Brahms ever wrote, with an entirely open mind. The four musicians playing most expressively, without ever drifting off into that thick, vibrato-dripping sound which serves many a far more famous quartet formation as a surrogate for true passion. The Auryn Quartet's Brahms sounds lean and yet sensual; the tempi are prompt and flexible. A highly successful recording which was also recorded in a first-class way (as we have become used to from the ambitious Tacet Label)"

Tacet's ongoing survey of all 555 sonatas written by the great Italian Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti as recorded by the prolific and acclaimed pianist Christoph Ullrich reaches, with these 30 works, K.454-83, available on 2 CD's, it's fourteenth volume. "Unlike Horowitz, who brought out the inner eccentricity of the pieces, or Christian Zacharias, who liberated them from the smell of mere glamour, Ullrich waits for the moment in which the music begins to float." - Die Zeit.

Mozart's Piano Quartets K 478 and 493 with the wonderful German Gaede String Trio and the outstanding Austrian pianist Markus Schirmer: this is pure chamber music delight, highly sensitive and exciting, sensual and fresh as the dew, clever in it's formal and concertante calculation: here Mozart allows for both common obscurity and lively dialogue. (Tirol online)

You can imagine the scene when listening in stereo: The orchestra, including the soloist, sits in a big circle around the microphones. Of course, the multi-channel version in TACET Real SS is much clearer even than what you would experience were you sitting in the room. What a fun experience for�all of�the musicians, and now all listeners! Gordan Nikolic, soloist and leader of the recording, captivates everyone. He feels entirely at home with Mozart and he has a love for the unique and eccentric things in the music. While in the fast movements climbing and clambering around on the strings like a child at the playground, in the slow ones he caresses his violin like a hug.

Gordan Nikolic writes: "The first time I heard "the" G Minor Symphony as "on-hold" music on the telephone, I thought, "Oh dear, another piece spoilt forever." You're wanting to complain to your telephone provider about your last bill and you hear this racket! But there is a remedy. You just need to listen a little further than the clip from the on-hold music. There are so many different moods: melancholy, grief, rage, consolation. And everything is woven together with such ingenuity and originality! It may seem strange at first to combine this with the blissful togetherness of the Sinfonia Concertante, but on reflection it makes sense. Whilst the slow movement of the G Minor Symphony (in the same key as the Sinfonia Concertante) brightens the mood of the other movements, the melancholic slow movement of the Sinfonia Concertante casts a shade over the lightness of the outer movements. It's not all difficult, nor is it all straightforward. Just like real life."

This 2CD set represents the first release on TACET of what will ultimately become a complete recordings project of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas. Pianist Christopf Ullrich, a prolific recording artist whose embarked on other projects of this or similar kinds, sets out in this extended journey with 30 Essercizi and 12 Sonatas.

On this CD in the TACET series "The Welte-Mignon Mystery", Carlo Zecchi, who was twenty-two at the time and a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni and Arthur Schnabel, appears in a totally new light, thanks both to his repertoire - which by the standards of the time was rather risque and his brilliant playing technique.

Evgeni Koroliov announces himself again with a recording of the Late Piano Sonatas of Beethoven (opp. 109, 110 and 111). A heavy, powerful touch is not his thing. Playing loudly where it is called for, Koroliov attempts to capture the listener’s attention in a different way, seducing one with his nuanced touch and an almost all-absorbing intensity. “If I could chose just one piece and soloist on a lonesome island, I would chose Koroliov. I would listen again and again to his recordings, dying of thirst and hunger till my last breath.” György Ligeti

This is not an historical recording. Yet mysteriously the music is performed in an interpretation which is historically authentic down to the last detail. The key to this mystery is: The original performer was present at the recent recording session, but not physically: The music is heard on a modern Steinway. Never has music stored in the Welte-Mignon system sounded so "right" or so good. Thanks to TACET's much-praised recording technique, and because the Welte-Mignon memory system and sound production mechanism have now been newly adjusted for the first time by the leading expert in the field - and are thus able to meet TACET's requirements. (Welte-Mignon was invented in 1904.) the Welte-Mignon mystery can now speak to US without distortion.

This is not a historical recording. Yet mysteriously the music is performed in an interpretation which is historically authentic down to the last detail. The key to this mystery is: The original performer was present at the recent recording session, but not physically: The music is heard on a modern Steinway. Never has music stored in the Welte-Mignon system sounded so "right" or so good. Thanks to TACET's much-praised recording technique, and because the Welte-Mignon memory system and sound production mechanism have now been newly adjusted for the first time by the leading expert in the field - and are thus able to meet TACET's requirements. (Welte-Mignon was invented in 1904.) the Welte-Mignon mystery can now speak to US without distortion.

Get yourself vaccinated in time! The rococo red Mozart flood is looming on the horizon. In jubilee year it will bring US a plague of catchy tunes, also known as earworms, which you are advised to immunize yourself against to save your ear passages from clogging up. Particular risk of infection is expected from Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik K 525 [.....]It is as if the veins of a well-preserved mummy long frozen in glacier ice were to be refilled with living blood and spirits and return to life from eternal cryofication. At one point Mozart jumps so cheekily from G major to E flat major that one cannot he laughing. The old surprises can still spring themselves on US as if they were new. This last movement might be famous but it is too nimble to whistle along to and too lively to be an earworm". So it is the best immunization, and the treatment can, by the way, be applied to the surround sound listener via five speakers." (Die Zeit, Volker Hagedorn)