On this recording the Duo MAISS YOU presents two standard works of the modern classical literature, Bela Bartók’s Sonata for Violin and Piano Nr. 2 (1922) and Leoš Janácek’s Sonata for Violin and Piano (1914–21), contrasting them with the Sonata for Viola and Piano Op. 156 (2018 / World Premiere Recording) by the contemporary composer Roland Leistner-Mayer (b.1945). Bartók and Janácek (who were both dedicated ethnomusicologists) take the folk music of their Hungarian and Moravian native countryside as starting point for bold and inspired creations. For both composers, the return to folk music was not a nostalgic longing for the good old days, but a source of new ways of expression which they then expand and develop; an enrichment of modern music with a folk music-inspired facet. The composer Roland Leistner-Mayer, born in Bohemia, distanced himself from the experimental avant-garde in favour of an expressive, authentic musical diction. He has found stimulus and inspiration in the modern style of Bartók and Janácek, among others, which he has taken up fruitfully and made his own. The Duo MAISS YOU was founded by Burkhard Maiss and Ji-Yeoun You. The duo formation is dedicated to the violin and piano and – to the same degree – to the sister genre for viola and piano. In order exciting combinations of compositions even within a single program, the duo utilizes both and the viola in their concerts – a practice only rarely present in nowaday’s concert life.

With his extensive Lieder output, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) made some of the most beautiful, important, and varied contributions to this genre in the 20th century. With soaring and sparkling French esprit, brilliant melodies and fireworks displays of colors and harmonies that encompass all possible moods, from meditative stillness to exuberant gaiety and frivolity, are virtuosically combined, lending the sophisticated poetry of his celebrated contemporaries like Apollinaire and Éluard an incomparably sonorous countenance. With this album, pianist and singer Matthias Veit presents a kaleidoscope of several of the composer’s most popular song cycles. A simultaneous balancing act between voice and keyboard! Matthias Veit studied piano with Gernot Kahl and voice with Susanne Korzuscheck, Peter Elkus and Tom Krause. Since 1999 he has been teaching at several music academies in Germany as well as continuing to record for television and record companies.

At the suggestion of his friend and patron of the arts Roland F.O. Hercher, the composer Franz Hummel has written 33 Variations on a small waltz. Its substance is pieced together from casual sequences of letters and cryptic alphabet mutations drawn from the Christian and surnames “Roland F.O. Hercher and Sieglinde Pirzer”, in order to create a suitably lyrical model, reminiscent of a quiet summer evening on Roland‘s terrace, that offers plenty of scope for variations. Although Hummel has always held a poor opinion of programme music, he found himself in a difficult situation: in this piano work, he wanted to characterize the two people linked in the theme in each single number and thus came into conflict with his often all too enthusiastically proclaimed rejection of extra-musical programmatic elements. “Fortunately, at the age of eighty, one is old enough to bend a few wizened rules of life from time to time with late adolescent satisfaction. Work on the composition becomes more and more pleasurable and the imagination increases, if one simply throws one‘s ideologies overboard.” - says the composer. With an enthusiasm that is all his own, the talented 18-year-old piano virtuoso Christoph Preiss not only learned the “Hercher Variations” by heart in a very short time but also recorded them on album right away with wonderful effortlessness. The inspiration and accomplishment with which he presents the piece, that is anything but easy, is immediately convincing.

Thomas J. Woods (b. 1969): The Carnival of the Dinosaurs – A musical fairytale

Tyrannosaurus Regina is the tyrant Queen of the dinosaurs and preparations are underway for the Carnival celebrating her birthday. Always suspicious, she sends out spies to observe her subjects including a melancholy Brontosaurus, partying Triceratops and a tattooed Ankylosaurus. But perhaps the real threat comes from the Pterodactyls above?

“The Carnival of the Dinosaurs” is a musical fairytale that will delight listeners and readers young and old. Narrated and interpreted by Rachel Teear (Narrator), Freddy Kempf (Piano 1) and Natalia Woods (Piano 2).

Thomas J. Woods (b. 1969): The Carnival of the Dinosaurs – A musical fairytale

Tyrannosaurus Regina is the tyrant Queen of the dinosaurs and preparations are underway for the Carnival celebrating her birthday. Always suspicious, she sends out spies to observe her subjects including a melancholy Brontosaurus, partying Triceratops and a tattooed Ankylosaurus. But perhaps the real threat comes from the Pterodactyls above?

“The Carnival of the Dinosaurs” is a musical fairytale that will delight listeners and readers young and old. Narrated and interpreted by Rachel Teear (Narrator), Freddy Kempf (Piano 1) and Natalia Woods (Piano 2).

Mindfulness - towards life and towards fellow human beings. This level is important for every human being. It is decisive for the shaping of life itself and therefore also for living together in partnership, in the family and also at the workplace. It determines the quality of communication, helps when it comes to feelings but also to injuries; are concerned. It enables and strengthens the understanding for our fellow human beings par excellence. It prevents on the the opposite, the slide into isolation. Another point is the recognition, the perception of inner and outer circumstances that can influence and change our life – in a gentle or powerful way.

Thomas Goetschel and Yvonne Ritter have been making music together for many years and share a great passion for early music. When they work together on works, an exact historically informed reading is the basis for lively and modern interpretations. Both play chamber and orchestral music from the Renaissance to the Classical period in various ensembles. The beauty, depth and diversity of Johann Sebastian Bach's three sonatas for harpsichord and viola da gamba fascinate them equally. This fascination, together with the instruments suitable for the repertoire - harpsichord after Johann Heinrich Gräbner Dresden 1774 and seven-string bass viol attributed to Johann Christian Hoffmann Leipzig around 1720 - are the inspiration for this recording.

Creating a CD with my own music was not my idea. It was Elena Puszta who, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting closures that put the cultural sector to sleep, came up with the idea of recording a CD of Winkler Lieder. A pure Lied CD, on the other hand, would not have been particularly appealing and also not very representative, since piano and chamber music play a quite significant role in my slowly growing oeuvre. The musicians of the A-Trio were quickly recruited as instrumentalists for the recordings. The “Auf-geht‘s-Stipendium” scholarship of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia offered the four of them the perfect opportunity to record a cross-section of my work, which of course delighted me immensely. […] I also do not share the view that one cannot, shall not or must not write sonatas, fugues and certainly not Lieder any more (for whatever reason), above all also because prohibitions in art are no longer attractive, not even for the possible tempting transgression’s sake. Moreover, I am one of those composers who seem to be becoming rarer and who definitely care about being understood, even liked, as an artist. I believe that moving listeners with music is a good thing, and I hope that this recording will do just that. (Andreas J. Winkler)

“Welcome to the infinite violin world of Ysaÿe's music. Everything that Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931) wrote enriches our violin literature in an unprecedented way. Since each sonata is dedicated to a particular violinist, each work has a correspondingly unrepeatable, individual character. To emphasize this even more clearly, I decided to record each work in a different Viennese ambience. Multifaceted and courageous, uncompromisingly following his ideas of how the violin can and should sound – he also opens up an unlimited horizon for us, the performers, to 'embody' these sounds.” Elena Denisova; Since her first encounter with the violin Elena Denisova engaged in widening and exploring her interpretation. Interpretation does not only mean the consequent and perfect execution of the score, but also translating the musical context in a subjective but essential way for each listener. Music which can deliver “raison d'être” lives from this inherent commitment. There are no accidental symbols – not notes, not pauses –, rather everything leads to a vivid choreography by the interpreter. Each movement of the musical line is accompanied by a representative expression. These interactions were comprehended and broadened throughout many years. The two latest CD productions, Chandoshkins violin sonatas on the one hand (DEKA media, DMCD008) and Max Regers violin concerto in transcription by Rudolf Kolisch on the other (ORF, CD 351, Limited Edition). The former was presented at the newspaper “Presse” as CD of the week. Further on short films with unusual atmospheres and motives, the characterizing of four valuable violins in the "four seasons" of Vivaldi, duets with tenor Carry Persson and progressive movies like "Paganihilismo" with music by Dieter Kaufmann provide a worldwide spread of her art. Composer Dieter Kaufmann writes: “...and she is also the sensation of these production, the violinist Elena Denisova. Through her personality the violin universe comes alive, the music on the paper 'a beautiful mute with eyes full of meaning' (Sartre about Mona Lisa) steps out of its boundaries and spreads its wings through time and space.”

The Spanish pieces on this CD became famous mainly as solo guitar compositions by the three Catalan master pianists Isaac Albéniz, Joaquín Malats and Enrique Granados. I have often played them that way in concerts as well. In 2019, Nicolas and I had the idea to transcribe these works combined with works by Astor Piazzolla for viola and guitar. Since then, we have enjoyed playing this music in numerous concerts. The viola-guitar combination gives these compositions a whole new dimension. Compared to the solo guitar versions, the works appear in a completely new light, allowing the compositions to emit transparency and a variety of tonal colors.

The Spanish music of the CD program alternates with music by one of the most frequently performed works of Manuel de Falla (1876–1946), and the Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992). Piazzolla is considered the great innovator of the Tango, the “Tango Nuevo”. He originally composed the “Histoire du Tango” for flute and guitar. The other compositions are short character pieces, all of which we have arranged for viola and guitar. The two movements “Bordel-1900” and “Café-1930” evoke the history of Tango in their respective eras. “Bordel-1900” goes back to the beginnings of the Tango. The new dance form was played in the brothels of Buenos Aires around this time. As “1930” marked a new era, the Tango was no longer danced as it was around 1900, and people limited themselves to listening to it. The Tango becomes more musical and romantic, the movements become slower, new harmonies are added. The music takes on a strong melancholic streak.

In 1928-29, Dr. Werner Wolffheim put his legendary music collection up for auction in Berlin. Among its countless treasures are original editions of J.S. Bach‘s “The Art of the Fugue” and “Musical Offering” as well as an “Album for the Lute”, an exquisite collection of music for the 11-course baroque lute. This manuscript, now kept in Melbourne, contains almost exclusively unique pieces, which were recorded here for the first time. But even the best music library remains silent until it is made to sound.

The “Handschrift aus der 2. Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts, eine Art Album” (Manuscript from the second half of the 17th Century, a kind of album) presented on this recording for the first time offers an exquisite collection of music for the 11-course baroque lute – excellently interpreted by the lutenist Bernhard Hofstötter.

“From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields” – this is how we might sum up the shared roots of these four composers. Vaclav Pichl (World Premiere Recording) and Johann Baptist Vanhal penned their works in an early classical style, while Bohuslav Martinu and Roland Leistner-Meyer deployed the aesthetic means of expression of their own period to enrich the repertoire while still invoking the ideals of the classical era. This program is the perfect treat for listeners who enjoy discovering new works and expanding their musical horizons!

Few works from Jakob Friedrich Kleinknecht (1722-1794) can be found these days, which is unfortunate as this German composer, flutist, and Kapellmeister composed a large catalog of chamber music and symphonies that put his skill at the same level as his more famous contemporaries. Ensemble La Cantonnade (Miho Shirai, Zsuzsa Csige, Marie Colombat, and Niklas Heineke) sets out to change that with this new release of Trio Sonatas for two flutes and basso continuo. Each of these works is receiving here its world premiere recording.

The program takes you on a wonderful journey through Baroque Italy, illuminating compositions of different colors written for recorder and basso continuo. Some of the great music centers of the time – Milan, Venice and Naples – are visited and the listener can immerse themselves in a bygone era. Various styles emerged in these centers, which are known today as the "Venetian school" and the "Neapolitan school", and which ultimately lead to the "gallant style". Major influences from Arcangelo Corelli's compositional style can also be heard in some of the sonatas in the program. As soon as the instrument recorder appears, one always asks oneself whether this was a marginal instrument or whether it could have been of great importance within the music scene. What is certain is that there are numerous sonatas composed specifically for this instrument, as well as extensive contemporary transcriptions of the oboe and violin repertoire for recorder. Influenced by the great popularity of the recorder, composers such as the German-speaking oboe virtuoso Sieber also decided to travel to Italy in order to become respected masters of this instrument.

The present program therefore consists exclusively of works that exist in an original historical manuscript. The manuscripts are now scattered in numerous libraries from Europe to the USA - and yet they all have one thing in common: they contain wonderful sonatas for recorder and basso continuo, all of which were composed in Italy within 30 years. And the deeper you finally delve into this program, the more amazed you can be about the variety and also about some mysteries that suddenly open up...

Joseph Haas wrote a relatively large number of works for women's choirs, showing his preference for women's voices. This release gives a cross-section of the work in this field. It ranges from folk song cycles to "hymns" to cheerfulness to cantatas in praise of music and nature. The Munich women's choir under the direction of Katrin Wende-Ehmer together with the pianist Susanne Jutz-Miltschitzky interprets these works with the appropriate diversity of expression. The works for women's choir by Joseph Haas range from the oratorio "Das Lebensbuch Gottes" op. 87 to the folk song arrangements of the Liederreigen op. 89 and include 10 works with opus numbers. This is relatively large and shows the composer's interest in the female voices. He didn't just think of secular women's choirs, but also of singing in nunneries with their school facilities. Singing in a choir became more and more important to him as his life progressed. The meaning of the words and their expression in the music was the goal of his composition. The works included on this album as world premiere recordings are either arrangements of folk songs or melodic in folk song style, as is typical of Joseph Haas.