Does thinking make you ugly? + Why are some women only beautiful when they sit and why are some men only strong when they stand up? + And is there life outside of Bayreuth in summer? + It’s these and many other questions to which Peter Tilch wrote his songs on ‘From Beauty and Bread Dumplings’. + Texts full of wit, sparkling irony and unexpected twists connected to groovy music between jazz, chanson, blues and art songs.

“Yojo, 19,” is Yojo’s fourth release with TYXart. His earlier albums, “Yojo, 15,” “Yojo, 17,” and “Atavistic Music,” all received critical acclaim. Yojo began his musical career as a young child, giving his first concerts when he was only 8 years old, which focused on classical and romantic literature, as well as his own compositions. For this release, Yojo has chosen works by Beethoven and Chopin, as well as two original works. His passacaglia “IRINI” won second prize at the international Diabelli Composition 2015, where Yojo was the youngest of all the candidates.

Alexander Maria Wagner, the 19-year-old pianist and composer, wrote his first symphony at aged fourteen. This astounding work, with Alexei Kornienko conducting the Sofia Philharmonic, was Wagner's first CD release. On this CD, the pianist Wagner has set out to demonstrate that he is an interpreter who has something definitively personal to say about his great predecessors J.S. Bach and Robert Schumann, in addition to his own work, Inferno which shares their illustrious company here.

The duo pianists Katja and Ines Lunkenheimer played a most essential role in this project, with their convincing combination of gripping virtuosity, creative power and precision. Each composer is represented by two works or cycles: Holmer Becker with a Fantasia for piano four hands and a Divertimento for two pianos. The Sonata in B major by Frederic Bolli begins with two movements for piano two hands and ends with a movement for four hands. His I dodici mesi (The Twelve Months) for piano four hands is a series of 6 succinct preludes and fugues. Hans Kraus-Hubner is represented by three Hiatuses (chasms, clashes) for piano four hands and Schwankungen (Oscillations) for piano four hands.

These world premiere recordings of music by composer Ferdinand Bruckmann (b. 1930) represent a considerable portion of his output. A student of Frank Martin, later himself a professor of composition and piano, Bruckmann’s music stands out for its harmonic-melodic diversity, comical notions and funny surprises. + Renowned interpreters including Kayako Bruckmann (the composer’s daughter, Rene Berman, Heinz Walter Florin and Michael van Krücker present with their interpretations a characteristic and very convincing musical portrait.

The debut CD by the Queens Duo dedicates itself to human fantasy and imagination and the four tracks in the collection enchantingly range from Romantic era curios to a composition by the silent film score composer Bruno Hilse to contemporary jazz/classical saxophonist and composer Andy Scott. The flutist Verena Beatrix Schulte and harpist Hanna Rabe perform with a marvelous expressiveness and attention to detail in the musical fantasy worlds they construct with this debut.

For over 30 years as a composer and improviser, Uli J. Kieckbusch has occupied himself not only with jazz and new music, but with old folksongs. Although the songs about the moon are hidden fragmentary on Biaumond, on this new CD recording Abend wird es wieder (Evening Moods), they are first introduced in their entirety before the improvisation begins.

Classical Music

The songs on this new release explore the connection between singing and playing- the human voice and the instrument. It has long been a topic of discussion: the instrument matching the singing abilities of the human voice. Young musician Tabea Debus already has a number of accolades to her name, including the International Woodwind Competition first prize in 2011, and first prize at the 8th International Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Competition in Austria. “Tabea Debus is one of the most promising and versatile recorder players of the younger generation. It impresses with its intense and concentrated stage presence as by their rousing musicality that is always paired with technical perfection. Whether new or old music, Tabea taught their contents always stylish and compelling.” (Dorothee Oberlinger)

The five works presented here, all in premiere recordings, were initiated by the Duo Imaginaire and given their world premiere performances in 2012/13. A quinary structure arises through the shared relationship of the five composers to the German federal state of Westphalia. Nonetheless, the composers could hardly differ from each other more, in both style and character. From melancholia and jocular high spirits to dramatically explosive outbursts, these works offer new forms of expression that take this rare sonic combination to the limits - supported by new playing techniques and effects.

Joseph Haas (1879-1960), an early 20th c. student of Max Reger, later professor of music in Stuttgart and Munich, and co-founder, with Paul Hindemith and others, of the "Donaueschinger internationalen Kammermusikfeste f�r Neue Musik", was a late-Romantic composer of clear tonal leaning. This version of Das Lebensbuch Gottes, op. 87 (1934) for Women's Choir, Solos, Organ, Piano and small Orchestra was arranged by the composer himself.Winner of multiple awards, the M�nchner Frauenchor and it's director chose to perform and record this work for their 25th anniversary celebration.

Relive a whole life in songs, filled with the ups and downs of love, full of poetic moments, power, eroticism and a dash of melancholia. Timothy Sharp has a particularly strong affinity for the songs of Richard Strauss that he developed in his studies with Hans Hotter, on of Strauss's favorite singers, and friend.Together with Jan Roelof Wolthuis he tries to expose not only the grandeur but also the quiet, lyrical moments in the songs, that tell the story of a young man who grows old as the disc, a collection featuring some of the most beautiful and important Strauss songs, progresses.

As a composer, conductor, accompanist and conservatory director, Hermann Zilcher (1881-1948) heavily influenced the musical life of the German city of Wurzburg. His oeuvre, stage and orchestral works as well as chamber, piano and choral music are being treated to a second look. With this album, his entire choral work is for the first time available on CD. Alfred Einstein characterized Zilcher as one of the most outstanding of German composers. His music is an ardent, robust and convincing German late-Romanticism, well within the tradition of his North German compatriot Johannes Brahms.

• Music exploring the late 17th and early 18th century cultural milieu surrounding Marin Marais • David Rattinger's Viola da Gamba made by Dominque Freguin • Detailed booklet notes in German, English and French

Franz Hummel was the first composer after Beethoven to use Anton Diabelli’s famous theme as the basis for an extended solo piano work. + These variations are like a humorous, tongue-in-cheek chronicle of music, and some stylistic quotations offer a challenge, as in a musical quiz, to guess who could possibly have written which variation. + Angela Cholakian is regarded as one of the most passionate and original pianists playing the romantic and contemporary literature. + With phenomenal technique she effortlessly puts into practice all that her obsessive imagination demands of her.