There is only anecdotal evidence of how the composer Hans Schaeuble discovered music. He evidently learnt the piano at an early age: he was writing out pieces of music even in his childhood. For his years in Lausanne, there are copious accounts of his attendance at concerts by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet, which led him to the conclusion that he should be a composer himself. Against the wishes of his parents, particularly his stepfather (his father having died in 1922), he prepared himself for a course of study in music. From no later than 1927 until the end of 1930, he studied piano with Karl Adolf Martienssen and composition with Hermann Grabner at the Landeskonservatorium in Leipzig. Schaeuble moved to Berlin on December 15 or 16, 1930. He was now a freelance composer and remained so until the end of his life; he never held any official position.
The Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra op. 50 of 1967 is Schaeuble’s fifth work for piano and orchestra. His first essay in the form dates from 1931, his first year in Berlin: the Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra op. 9, which remained unperformed. The Concertino for Oboe and String Orchestra op. 44 of 1959 is the first of three wind concertos that Schaeuble composed in succession between 1959 and 1962. On September 9, 1956 he wrote his first note about preliminary studies; on November 11, 1956, he signed off on his Serenade in B flat for String Orchestra op. 42. Although the piece appears to have been a commissioned work, there is no record of any performances.
Joy of discovery and perpetual reaching for new horizons are the traits that best describe the Grammy-winning State Chamber Orchestra Sinfonietta Riga. Since its foundation in 2006, the orchestra's artistic director and chief conductor has been Normunds Šne. One can hardly imagine a more devoted champion of neglected and rarely played composers than pianist Oliver Triendl. His tireless commitment – primarily to romantic and contemporary music – is reflected in almost 150 CD recordings. The scope of his repertoire is surely unique, comprising more than 100 piano concertos and hundreds of chamber music pieces. In many cases, he was the first to present these works on stage or to commit them to disc.
