In addition to his two piano sonatas, the most extensive compositions among his works, Ives wrote a series of shorter piano pieces of which those that have been published are collected on this recording. United in such a manner, they present a kind of cross-section of Ives' compositional output setting in relief at the same time several characteristics of his music. Marches, chorales, ragtimes, waltzes, popular American songs, classical quotations, sounds that recede and sounds that approach from the distance, thickly woven contrapuntal movements, seriousness, wit and high spirits, melancholy, pathos and irony, they all find themselves in an often colourful, inimitable mixture, often in the same piece, often in provoking juxtaposition. Cross-connections between the individual pieces as well as between them and others of his works are portraits, as obvious as they are characteristic, of a compositional technique that as strongly resisted the exclusion of any kind of musical materials as it was effortlessly able to integrate them. Such an approach to traditional styles and subjects, formal construction, playing techniques, form types, tuning systems, or conventions of performance, incorporating these materials to the point of disintegration, sometimes in abrupt confrontation, gives his music character and stature, and identifies Ives as one of the truly experimental composers of our century whose ideas have since been carried on in an even broader and more radical sense by John Cage. This production received the quarterly German Record Critics' Award.

Because the guitar as a solo instrument never felt entirely comfortable in the context of serialism and because various contemporary experiments have tended to emphasize weakness in the instrument, the selection of pieces for this record has focused on composers who clearly emphasize the coloristic aspects of the guitar in the expression of their musical intentions. Konrad Ragossnig: guitar.

The texts on which Hans Zender's Logos-Fragmente are based can be dated primarily to the first and second centuries AD and have been taken from the New Testament, early Gnostic writings and apocryphal sources. They deal with central human themes from the perspective of religious belief, such as the origins of humanity, it's suffering and fate, and the relationships of human beings to one another. When composing, Zender pursued the development of as different musical units as possible - analogous to the text material's many different sources. Recurring motifs, melodies, or harmonies were deliberately avoided. Each "fragment" is independent and the order of the pieces has remained undetermined. This CD presents the first complete recording of these works.

Music is a secret form of mathematics, the elements of which have a share in eternity. It lives in the movement of water, in the undulating motion of changing winds; nothing is more musical than a sunset! (Claude Debussy) In a series of five compact discs WERGO releases Claude Debussy's complete works for piano - masterly played by Nina Tichman. Music is for Debussy part of nature, originating from it and returning to it. As a sensitive mediator it allows one a glimpse of an original state of things in which man and nature were one - and at the same time documents painfully the loss of this original state. Expressions like "music of silence" and "music in the open air" are key expressions in understanding Debussy's works. In 1915 Debussy composed the Douze �tudes, his last work for piano solo. He dedicated the work to Fr�d�ric Chopin, thus consciously taking his place in the ranks of a great tradition and formulating a claim for the genre "�tude" which extends far beyond its function as a technical practice piece. The titles of the �tudes are abstract, indeed, compared with the poetic ideas of the "Pr�ludes" and other piano works they could in fact be described as truly scientific in their precision. The theme of each title is the technical problem dealt with in each individual piece (intervals, chromaticism, repetitions etc.). The works which follow these dry titles display bold freedom and fantasy, shimmering beauty which leaves far behind all trace of "�tude" character. The �tudes, of all things, the epitome of dry school-book learning, become a feast of creativity.

The Indian string instrument called the tamboura is known for it's spatial (overtone) sound. It is used in an experimental way, that is, in unusual tunings and with a group of four instruments arranged in a circle. The startling range of sounds produces a state of harmonic floating that is reminiscent of a child in the womb.

The inspiration and influence of a particular performer or even a specific request for a new work can be of immeasurable importance for the creation of a new composition. Particularly in music for the voice, the vocal characteristics of the intended singer have always played an essential role in determining the character of new pieces. This has also been the case for Aribert Reimann, who wrote each of his song cycles with a specific singer in mind.

When Michael J�llich causes the gong in the Speyer Cathedral, which is almost human-sized, to gradual rise from the silence to a crescendo, it is clear from the beginning what the subtitle, "Dynamic Meditation Music", refers to. The dynamic development of sounds of the various gongs and gongdrums is not meant for dancing but for meditative listening and for inner calm. Several of the gongs are tuned to the five major tones of Chinese music, and they channel the "universal force", or chi, in keeping with cosmology.

At the age of 85 Augusto Gomes Rodrigues, known as Verequete, is considered the grand old master of carimb�, the local dance music in the region east of the Amazon. In the 1960s he brought this traditional style with African features out of the backwoods into the city Bel�m and modernized it. In his youth he was acclaimed as an innovator; in his old age, as a traditionalist. "Carimb�" will make Verequete's music internationally available for the first time.

Peteris Vasks was born in Aizpute, Latvia, the son of a church minister. He studied the double bass and composition in Riga and Vilnius, among others with Valentius Utkins, and was a member of various symphony and chamber orchestras. He currently is a free-lance composer living in Riga. Among the works of Vasks, his compositions for string orchestra are of particular importance. With the help of several works scored for strings, the CD on hand imparts comprehensive knowledge of the development that Vasks has undergone since the last 70's. Vasks wrote in the introduction to his symphony "Stimmen" [Voices]: "At the end of 1990 I had begun to write the symphony. Then came January 1991. Blood was flowing in the streets of Latvia and Lithuania. Sleepless nights at the barricades. After all that, the new beginning was difficult. The symphony speaks of my essential, most meaningful themes. About life. About eternity. About conscience. I wrote it with love and faith."

Soprano Claudio Bottcher and pianist Jovita Zohl have worked as a duo since 2008. Their recording entitled Zeit(t)resume is dedicated to works by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. Stockhausen's music box cycle Tierkreis (Zodiac) is presented here in a version for soprano and piano. In Berio's Sequenza III, based on a text by the Swiss writer Markus Kutter, a wealth of emotional states is expressed. Using the voice, the natural instrument of man, the text is articulated through sounds, syllables and words. Stockhausen's Klavierstucke IX shows the characteristic principle of his serial thinking - to arbitrate gradually as well as organically between pairs of opposites. The special charm that characterizes Quattro Canzoni poplari is born out of Berio's fascinating interpretation of traditional folk songs.

It happened very much as it did in the 18th century - which Werner Egk considered a kind of spiritual home - where a composer wrote for an ensemble at hand. It was under such circumstances that Egk composed the "Divertissement" (1973-74) for eleven winds, the version for winds (1980) of the overture to his early opera "Die Zaubergeige" (The Magic Violin), and the arrangement of Mozart's "Sinfonia concertante" in E-flat KV 297b, his last work. The musicians who inspired Egk in these three scores were Klaus Rainer Sch�ll and the Wind Ensemble of Mainz which Sch�ll founded in 1967. It is said that Werner Egk had to be persuaded to write music of an intimate character; in his long list of works chamber music plays the smallest role, being limited to the Piano Sonata of 1947 and two pieces for winds dating from the 1970's. Bl�ser Ensemble Mainz / Klaus Rainer Sch�ll: conductor.

Ligeti's Cello Concert - particularly when combined, as here, with Lontano - offers a wonderful introduction to the maestro's music, and Siegfried Palm, to whom the work is dedicated, is it's ideal interpreter. Siegfried Palm: violoncello / Sinfonie-Orchester des Hessischen Rundfunks, Frankfurt/Main / Michael Gielen: conductor / Sinfonie-Orchester des S�dwestfunks, Baden-Baden / Ernest Bour: conductor / Gunilla von Bahr: flute / Torleif L�nnerholm: oboe / Sinfonie-Orchester des Schwedischen Rundfunks / Elgar Howarth: conductor.

Mikis Theordorakis is regarded as one of the most important composers of Greece and can be counted among the most renowned composers of contemporary music. He became famous through the music of the film Zorba The Greek based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis which became world-famous with Anthony Quinn playing the eponymous hero in the epic film of the same name, and was later hugely successful in different versions, e.g. as a ballet, as well. "Songs For Guitar" is a collection of songs and vocal works by Theodorakis which have been arranged for guitar by Rainer Rohloff. Mikis Theodorakis has written only a few works for this instrument. The main focus of his comprehensive œuvre has been oratorios, song cycles, Film and ballet music. The only exceptions are Lorca for alto voice, solo guitar and large orchestra, and his Rhapsody for Guitar and Orchestra, both being based on thematic material of the song cycle Romancero Gitan by Federico Garcia Lorca. However, numerous guitarists of note, from John Williams to Elena Papandreou, have examined his songs and created their own transcriptions. What mattered to Rainer Rohloff most in the project "Songs For Guitar" was to make some of the central musical works of Theodorakis accessible as literature for concert guitar. Rainer Rohloff, an internationally renowned guitarist from Saxonia, has given concerts with Mikis Theodorakis in Europe and Asia for far more than ten years and has taken part in many recordings. The long intense collaboration between Rohloff and Theodorakis finds its personal expression in this solo project. The central technical challenge was to take account of and at the same time overcome the limits of the instrument. Especially with arrangements from the large-scale oratorio "Canto General" (1971-1981) released by Intuition Classics (INT 31142), or with the songs To Gelasto Paidi and 18 November based on the play The Hostage (1961) by the Irish playwright Brendan Behan (1923-1964), originally composed for solo voice and symphony orchestra, he succeeded in skilfully transferring the tonal world without affecting the musical statement. With the collection Songs for Guitar containing such well-known songs as Afti ou th'arthoun, Dioti from the song cycle O Ilios ke o chronos, and To Gelasto Paidi and 18 November which the composer himself sang on the album "Theodorakis Sings Theodorakis" (INT 30592), Rainer Rohloff shows that his melodies are 'songs' in the best sense of the word. His arrangements combine traditional Greek and Spanish influences, after the example of Mikis Theodorakis' own guitar works, and modern stylistic means. Rainer Rohloff's performance is always transparent and of an easily remembered cantabile style, even where the virtuoso performance reaches the limits of the instrument, such as in La United Fruit Company. Rohloff's own preludes and intermezzos, which are unpretentious introductions to the works, such as in Asma Asmaton from the song cycle Mauthausen (1966) are proof of Rohloff's intensive examination of Theodorakis' œuvre. Special praise is to be given to Rainer Rohloff's subtle and sensitive compilation of melodies from the song cycles Arcadia II and III based on texts by Manos eleftheriou. Mikis Theodorakis himself says about "Songs For Guitar": "Rohloff fully respects what is written as well as the spirit of the compositions, his translation is made with seriousness and in a creative form so that the independence of both the guitar and the music remains unchanged.' Songs for Guitar is a collection of arrangements which are going to awaken the interest of many guitarists and fill lovers of Greek music with enthusiasm. One 'will have the pleasure of seeing the well-known compositions in a new shining musical dress that will certainly give a new wind to the pieces..." (Mikis Theodorakis, Athens 21.12.2001)

Michael Hirsch began to work as a composer in 1976, with occasional interruptions for theatre engagements. In addition to instrumental music and music theatre, the genre of musique concr�te is an important part of his compositional oeuvre as is illustrated impressively by the works recorded on this CD: "La Didone abbandonata" is based on the opera seria text of the same name by Pietro Metastasio from 1724. For his version Hirsch reduced the number of the dramatis personae to the two protagonists Dido and Aeneas and distilled their texts down to one monologue each - combining these sometimes to create dialogues - in order to present the core of this drama about a relationship in the most concentrated form possible. The musique concr�te compositions "5. Studie" and "Umbau 2" are associated with Hirsch's project "Das Konvolut" ["The Convolution"], in which pieces, concepts and materials from various sources and genres are brought together. The present version of "5. Studie" was composed especially for this CD. "Umbau 2" is generated from the supplementary material for his opera "Das stille Zimmer" ["The Quiet Room"]. There are some obvious musical connections between the "String Quartet" and "Tragicomedia": various musical elements, particularly harmonic structures from the quartet, were developed further in the madrigal opera. The content of "Tragicomedia" is based on a key work of Spanish literature: "La tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea" by Fernando de Rojas (ca. 1499). Hirsch's composition combines and jumbles dialogue fragments from the literary sources so that they are constantly hovering between a linear narrative and understandable storyline and an associative collage.

Impressionistic, jazzy, dancing, vivacious, dreamy, otherworldly, mystical, artful, polyphonic, quietly meditative, rhythmic, and melodically varied - such is the music of Peter Arnesen, Hermann Urabl, and Werner Stadler for synthesizer, keyboards, piano, guitar, and a variety of exotic percussion instruments. A musical world with a unique character.