Herwig Zack was born in Frankfurt/Main. He started to play the violin at age 5 and studied with Karl-Albrecht Herrmann, Edith Peinemann and Max Rostal. Scholarships from the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes” and from the “Rotary Foundation” made it possible for him to complete his education at Indiana University in Bloomington/Ind./USA as a member of the violin class of the legendary Josef Gingold.From 1982 to 1995 Zack held the position of 1 st Concertmaster of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, Herwig Zack has performed and recorded under the baton of conductors such as Karl Münchinger, Ferdinand Leitner, Uri Segal, Yutaka Sado, Paul Nadler and Gilbert Varga; his musical partners have included Henryk Szeryng, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Trevor Pinnock, Grigori Zhislin, Peter Nagy, Bernd Glemser and Ingo Goritzki, among many other renowned artists. This new release is a recital that features solo violin compositions by Bach, Vieuxtemps, Ysaye, Honneger, and more.

Composer Robin Hoffmann writes: “The oral cavity harbors hidden creatures. You need to stimulate them first before they reveal themselves – by vocal cords, breath or a click of the tongue and, like in this specific case, by tongues of steel held against lips or teeth. Formants, they are called, shapeshifters in the no man’s land between A and O. It is to be listened to inwardly. The recording situation: an acoustic bell jar. The signal of the microphone, transported by headphones into my ears, allows me to be acoustically in the middle of the mouth while I am plucking at its entrance. Too much or too little spittle, the sound of the dorsum releasing from the roof of the mouth, the juices play along as well. Then at the next step cutting and dissecting and developing structures. Creating order for objects which refuse to comply fully. Thus, alongside an intent to mold, anarchically carefree moments of un-composing appear. Out of a multitude of jaw harp samples emerges a super-mouth – an overdimensioned badmouth, a maw harp (Schlundharfe).”

This program of French music is built on the cornerstone of Debussy’s most famous work, Clair de Lune. Philipp Jonas (Violin) and Maximilian Schairer (Piano) have performed as a duo since 2016. They continue to excite their audiences with their “natural and joyous repeat performances, played with a superior artistic level and exceptionally colorful tonal range”. Their repertoire features notable pieces ranging from classical to contemporary compositions. These include Sonatas by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Grieg, Debussy, Ravel, Sibelius, and Strawinsky. The duo receives musical inspiration from their mentors Julia Fischer, Silke Avenhaus, Michael Hauber and Florian Wiek. Philipp and Maximilan first performed in a selection of chamber music concerts and also at various festivals in Germany and Italy. Notable examples include performances at the AMMERSEErenade Classic Music Festival, at the Happy Classic Hours as master students of Julia Fischer, at ZUKUNFTSKLANG in Stuttgart, with the Roma Tre Orchestra, and at the Montecastelli Chamber Festival.Following their European success the duo received a cultural stipend for a concert tour through Indonesia in 2019. Their concerts were celebrated enthusiastically by the audience and critics: “Two young musicians with exceptional achievements and a first grade musical reputation” wrote the Indonesian Press.

The works brought together on this release form a rare constellation: a sacred cantata, a fantasy for chamber ensemble, a solo clarinet work and a symphony for large orchestra. This selection of works clearly reflects the theme of Encounters. Stylistic and musical juxtapositions are heard here through the prism of music history: Baroque music meets twenty-first-century music, a church cantata meets a symphony, a solo instrument meets an orchestra. There is an encounter between two composers with the same surname, three centuries apart: Johann Theile and Sebastian Theile. Another is between two composers whose works are the result of their own experiences as orchestral musicians: Sebastian Theile and Eberhard Klemmstein. On this album the solo clarinetist Sebastian Theile posthumously reencounters ‘his’ orchestra, the Meiningen Court Orchestra, as composer.

Presented here is an exciting and diverse selection of melodramas by some well-known and some forgotten composers. Peter Pachl is ably supported by pianist Rainer Klaas as well as violinist Martin Haunhorst.

Oskar Bohme, a son of Wilhelm Bohme, was a German trumpeter and composer. He studied trumpet and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory of Music until his graduation in 1888. From 1894-1896 he played in the Budapest Opera Orchestra and then moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1897. Böhme played cornet for 24 years in the Mariinsky Theatre, turned to teaching at a music school on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg for nine further years, from 1921-1930, and then returned to opera with the Leningrad Drama Theatre until 1934. The present release celebrates the composer’s 150th birthday with a collection of compositions, including his Trumpet Concerto in F minor, performed by Helmut Fuchs.