Info text: Orchestral music for piano four hands, interpreted precisely and simply: Franz Schubert's “Grand Duo” from 1824 in comparison with the 5th Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich from 1937 (in an arrangement authorized by the composer). Here the reduction of a real orchestral sound - there a romantic desire for expression that pushes the limits of the instrument, [...]

Info text: Aperghis started working on the naked, unalienated piano sound relatively late - the results are all the more concentrated. Nicholas Hodges has been drawing a summary of the pieces since 1997: He emphasizes the clarity, the sharp lines, the luminosity of the colors. He transforms graceful movement into frenzy and back again. He lets rhythms and harmonies tumble wildly together, [...]

Info text: WORKSHOP NOTES Working on the Plainsound Glissando Modulation was an adventure with an uncertain outcome, not a routine case of new music. It demanded tenacious patience and constant dealing with one's own imperfections. The fragility of the material initially led to seemingly insurmountable technical problems, but soon demanded sensual refinements in instrumental playing and listening […]

Info text: Nikolai Andreevich Roslavets Igor Stravinsky, who should have known, called him the most interesting Russian composer of the 20th century and wrote to the violinist and music writer Michael Goldstein on August 12, 1966: »... I am pleased to attest to my always extraordinary encounters with him and the exciting impression of his fresh, always fresh music, which comes from […]

Info text: Eviscerated sky - La musique creuse le ciel Wolfgang Rihms La musique creuse le ciel for two pianos and large orchestra is an early work, written between 1977 and 1979; the composer was 25 years old when he began working on this score. It is the stroke of genius of a “young wild man” who at the beginning of his career […]

Info text: The appeal of the impossible: Michael Bastian Weiß found his life's theme in the diverse relationships between art and science, between music and philosophy. He lives as a composer and philosopher in Munich. The total length of the work, which also represents his 2nd symphony, is colossal. At 50 minutes, it goes beyond every standard […]

Info text: Music must be noble “Music must be noble” – Toshio Hosokawa once chose this statement in a personal conversation in order to differentiate himself from the aesthetics of other composers. This sentence seems to me to be an apt description of Hosokawa's music, as it draws its own noblesse from a very noble source: 'Gagaku', the music of the Japanese […]

Info text: Liberation utopia and promise of salvation In Klaus Huber's extensive work there are several nodes in which a longer creative phase comes to an end and a new one is announced. They are each marked by a large, vocal-instrumental work. Such landmarks were the Augustine oratorio Soliloquia in the early 1960s and the stage work Schwarzerde in 2001. And right in between, around 1980, […]

Info text: Diabelli Variations Franz Hummel – Ludwig van Beethoven The art of variation has always been considered the highest in music history. And it is widely known and accepted that Beethoven's genius was never surpassed by anyone else. But how is it that his most interesting, greatest and most profound piano work is a harmless waltz by Anton Diabelli […]

Info text: Composer in Dialogue Olga Neuwirth & ICI Ensemble Under the title 'Composer in Dialogue', the ICI Ensemble invites contemporary composers every two years to develop forms of composition and improvisation together with them in a kind of 'work in progress' to then perform the resulting pieces. The composer Olga Neuwirth was invited for this concert recording. […]

Info text: Works for Piano - Works for Flute and Piano Musical poetry is of course also conceivable without a text set to music: when the musical metric defies conventions, when the timbre and the structural meaning of a sound coincide, when the artist is concerned with condensed, pictorial formulations wrestles. Jonathan Harvey's short piano piece Verse is such a lyrical […]

Info text: Two incredibly intense works on the Good Friday event: Liszt wished for the renewal of Catholic church music, which was not least inspired by the Protestant legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. However, Franz Liszt places Bach's legacy in a musical landscape that touches the boundaries of tonality. Although the music emphasizes its folk character, […]