After a period as a court composer at Detmold, Brahms returned to the city of his birth, Hamburg, in January 1860. Here, in relative tranquillity, he explored the then rare piano quartet repertoire. The Piano Quartet No. 2 received a very sympathetic hearing in Vienna, Clara Schumann even preferring it to its immediate predecessor, the Piano Quartet, Op. 25 (Naxos 8572798). Its lyricism is heightened by a romantically beautiful Adagio. Mahler's vibrant Piano Quartet in A minor dates from 1876, the end of his first year at the Vienna Conservatory, where the only completed movement was first performed.

The saxophone quartet is an incredibly homogeneous and flexible grouping, which was conceived more than 100 years ago, but little used outside jazz and is thus still to be explored. The Italian saxophone school has recently blossomed from the French school, and the technical quality of instrumentalists has much grown. In the meantime, in all of Europe an original chamber repertoire has begun to form around the various formations possible with this instrument. It was precisely the difficulty of combining something else with this composition that alerted me to a certain lack of identity in the saxophone quartet, since it cannot draw, as all other instruments can, on its own Pre-Romantic repertory. Therefore I have tried to make a real contribution to resolving the problem of repertory, in my view central, and I have thought not so much of the individual compositions as of cycles. In fact, I have conceived two programme halves, in which I have included some encore pieces. These half concertos to me seem ideal to approach as one wishes a contemporary goal, both mixed and unitary. The first proposal is called Pagine, an open anthology on different centuries and genres. In combining the pieces I have avoided stereotypes; in fact, I have aimed at the inexhaustible modernity of the masters of the past, which today it is fashionable shamelessly to ignore. I have never claimed to have said everything and I leave space for my friends, to whose wedding with the saxophone my efforts are dedicated. - Salvatore Sciarrino

Secretly, I hope to make something of myself, but after Beethoven who can do anything? These words by the juvenile Franz Schubert might explain why it took him 15 years - until 1827, just one year prior to his death - to begin writing both of his great piano trios, works of epic, almost symphonic dimensions. This new interpretation by violinist Thomas Albertus Imberger with David Geringas, cello and Michael Korstick, piano works out the lyricism and thematic work as well as the affects and discontinuities which illustrate the large influence, that Beethoven's composing had on Schubert's oeuvre. Similar effects can be observed with the Notturno D 897, in contrast to the Trio Movement Allegro D 28, which being an early work exhibits closer ties to Mozart. Many awards, performances at international festivals and co-operations and recordings with musicians such as Jorg Demus, Evgueni Sinaiski or Paul Badura-Skoda as well as with the Israel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Roberto Paternostro and the orchestra "Spirit of Europe" under its principal conductor Martin Sieghart stress the young Salzburger's musical skills. Born in Vilnius / Lithuania, the cellist and conductor David Geringas is today numbered among the elite of music. His intellectual severity, stylistic versatility, his melodic feeling and the sensuality of the sound he produces have brought him awards from all around the world.

Michael Endres plays a wide-ranging repertoire including such rarely performed composers as Leopold Godowsky, Gabriel Fauré, Charles Ives and Eduard Tubin. The leading US critic Richard Dyer (Boston Globe ) described Endres as "one of the most interesting pianists who appear nowadays on CD". Michael Endres has recorded an equally wide-ranging repertoire for OehmsClassics, including releases with works of Schumann, Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Weber and the sonatas of Arnold Bax. The present album features works by Franz Schubert, including a special treat entitled the Kupelwieser Waltz. Endres’s playing has often been described as subtle, elegant, and refined, never taking the dramatic elements of the music to the extreme.

Franz Schubert was described by his contemporaries as a thoughtful, sensitive and highly competent pianist, if not a virtuoso, like Mozart and Beethoven. The distinguished fortepianist, Trudelies Leonhardt, presents here a miscellany of shorter piano works, both sonata and dance movements, mainly from the years 1815-1818, along with the mysterious and beautiful Hungarian Melody, from 1824. She performs on an exactly contemporaneous fortepiano by Benignus Seidner, Vienna, c. 1815. Trudelies Leonhardt is a member of one of Europe's most famous musical families, she's a leading exponent of the fortepiano and has a wide international following.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was famous from an early age as a pianist, utilizing the sophisticated Viennese instruments that were developed from the 1770's by builders such as Anton Walter and Andreas Stein. On this companion album to MO0409, distinguished fortepianist, Trudelies Leonhardt, presents another programme of Mozart's solo sonatas from Salzburg, Mannheim and Vienna, as well as the Rondo in D major, K. 485 and the sublime Adagio in B minor, K. 540. Leonhardt performs ona fortepiano built by Paul McNulty, a replica of an instrument by Mozart's favorite maker, Anton Walter.

The Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn concludes its complete recording of the symphonies of the composer whose name it bears with an absolutely rousing performance. The spirited Seventh Symphony brings together everything that General Music Director Stefan Blunier has demanded of his musicians from the very beginning of this cycle: emotional depth, gripping rhythms, frenetic energy, and powerful tension holding the audience in suspense even after the last chord has faded away. Prior to this work, however, the Bonn musicians show the Fourth Symphony in an entirely new light: no longer a bashful “wallflower,” it shines in its own special way between its two more famous neighbors.

Following the success of her first recording at Grace Cathedral, Susan Jane Matthews presents another recital program on Grace's vintage "American Classic" Aeolian-Skinner organ. Susan Jan eMatthews reveals the extraordinary tonal resources of this historic instrument, set in an acoustic room with powerful bass and long reverberation. "Opus 910 has a sound like no other and produces effects that are magical - hard to describe and impossible to imitate." (Jack M. Bethards, Schoenstein & Co. Curators) Former Principal Organist of Grace Cathedral, Susan Jane Matthews has also concertized widely and been featured on Pipedreams, The Organ Loft, and With Heart and Voice radio programs. As Director of Music at St. paul's Episcopal Church in Burlingame, CA., she is organist, Director of the Chancel Choir, and Founding Director of the St. Paul's Choir School for Boys and Girls. This is her second recording for Gothic Records.

It is with children in mind that I recorded these French Suites, always having heartfelt simplicity and purity in their mind. Children see the world with hope, optimism, and cast in light – much like Miró sees the world. I find a childlike purity in him, similar to what I hear in the French Suites. There is a quote by Miró that touches me enormously and makes me think a lot whenever I play, as it reflects something that may be the most difficult aspect of musical interpretation – and of art in general: To gain freedom is to gain simplicity.'' (Zhu Xiao-Mei) Zhu Xiao-Mei was born in 1949 in Shanghai. She began performing early, playing on Beijing radio and television when she was only 8. When she was ten she entered the National School of Music for exceptionally gifted children. She came to America in 1979, attending the New England Conservatory in Boston. Currently, she teaches at the Conservatoire de Paris.

In a series of interviews with Camille De Rijck, Philippe Herreweghe sums up his musical trajectory by offering the reader his reflections, intermingling musical and personal considerations. A selection of archive illustrations to delight the eyes and an updated biography complete the contents of the book, which is published in four languages. A five-disc compilation of extracts chosen and discussed by the conductor himself provides a musical counterpoint to the text. The selection enables you to explore a whole life through the finest works of such composers as Lassus, Schein, Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Dvorak and Stravinsky. Thanks to the long-standing close collaboration between Philippe Herreweghe and his favorite ensembles - Collegium Vocale Gent, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysees and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic - this anthology of his most remarkable interpretations is also an opportunity to experience at leisure the extraordinary palette of colors and timbres that he invariably succeeds in obtaining from them, and transports us to the very heart of the Flemish conductor's inner world.