Czech-born Swiss conductor Rafael Kubelik trained in Prague and debuted with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 19. He went on to be music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Opera Covent Garden, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Before recording the best of his repertoire (Mahler, Beethoven, R. Schumann, and more) for Deutsche Grammophon, Kubelik was particularly active with the English label Decca. With it, he recorded his only complete edition of the Brahms Symphonies in 1957. And it is this beautiful stereo version, which has not been found on the market for years, that we are presenting on these 2 albums after careful restoration.

The music of C.P.E. Bach showed the way to other great musicians who came after him and links baroque to classicism. The three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord were composed during his period at the court of Frederick the Great, when the use of the viola da gamba was becoming increasingly less common in many countries. Also at the service of the King of Prussia at the time was the flutist and composer J.J. Quantz, who gave valuable indications on the speed of performance that we have tried to adopt and follow as precious, reliable testimonies of that epoch.

This album tackles some of Clara Schumann’s most representative early works, from the Polonaises op. 1 (written when she was 13) to the Sonata in G minor (composed at the age of 20). These pages show the environment in which the young Clara grew up artistically, namely: virtuoso pianism, the influence of Chopin (such as in the Soirées Musicales op.6 ), almost statutory homagea to the Viennese tradition (as in the Souvenir de Vienne op. 9 dedicated to the Empress of Austria) and, equally obligatory, the sonata. Together with the Romances op. 11, this key work marks the passage to a second, more mature phase – magnificent yet tormented – of her life and poetics.