Bach: Complete Works Hänssler Edition Bachakademie Vol. 01 Cantatas

This is the first volume of Hänssler CLASSIC’s complete recording of Schumann’s piano works, a project that has not been accomplished before. Each CD will feature at least one world premiere recording. Here we have the premiere of Presto possible in F minor. Florian Uhlig is one of the most distinguished young pianists and his interpretations are based on the new critical edition of Schumann’s piano works.

Hänssler Classic is proud to release the fourth volume in what will be the only true complete recording of Schumann's music for piano solo. On the 4th volume ("Schumann in Vienna"), Florian Uhlig presents piano works composed in Vienna in 1838/39, amongst others "Faschingsschwank aus Wien op.26" and "Humoreske B Flat Major op.20". As was the case in the three previous installments, this program is arranged "thematically". Each volume will contain unpublished works or fragments. Schumann left many extended fragments that can easily be reconstructed without daring speculations, and in such cases, these fragments deserve to be heard and included in our presentation of Schumann complete works for the piano..

This is the 3rd instalmant of the first true complete recording of Schumann’s piano works and features several world premieres. «Uhlig's playing is in many ways exemplary: graceful, light of touch, strong of srping and in excellent control of voicing while navigating Schumann's intricate textures…[His] approach is unsentimental…»

Alexandre Tansman’s guitar music was almost exclusively created as the result of his friendship with the legendary Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia. The true extent of this catalogue has only recently become apparent, with unknown works emerging from archive sources. Performed after careful research into the original manuscripts, Andrea De Vitis’s programme brings together pieces that reference Tansman’s favourite musicians from history, in particular Bach and Chopin - masterfully intertwining personal affections with sophisticated techniques to create some of the most important guitar repertoire of the 20th century.

«Uhlig does Schumann proud in every respect. He mantains an admirable balance of brilliance and good sense, with superb voicing, delineating every silken skein of the cat-'s cradle textures with clarity and grace. And though the music celebrates virtuosity - to which Uhlig rises impeccably - there's still a touching humility to his interpretations.»

The second of Bach: The Organ Works by Megumi Yoshida, who achieved the performance of all the organ works by the first Japanese new Bach Complete Works. Like the previous work, Bach's beloved organ maker Arp Schnitger uses the timeless famous organ left in Groningen, the Netherlands.

Bach's organ music towers above so much else in the Western canon, that it needs no comment. But as one who enjoys going deeply into a composer for sever days, I found this set superb. I've listened to the entire set from start to finish several times; there's simply nothing else I've ever heard that compares. I'm not an organist, so I can't speak to the technical details of the performance - but Marie-Claire Alain, to my ear, delivers the perfect match of restraint, virtuosity, and grandeur for this work.

Mozart Edition: The Complete Works will make a great gift this Holiday season for the music lover in your life or someone who is hard to buy for. This collection contains 170 discs of completed works by Mozart in one beautiful package. Also included is a cd-rom containing essays on his works, artist bio's, text and libretti's. All music lovers will enjoy the Symphonies - Concertos - Serenades - Divertimenti - Dances - Chamber Music - Church Sonatas - String Ensembles - Violin Sonatas - Keyboard Works - Sacred Works - Concert Arias - Songs - Canons and Operas in this collection.

In 1819 the Viennese music publisher and composer Anton Diabelli sent a short waltz to a long list of composers. These included Schubert, Hummel, a very young Franz Liszt and, as the most prominent composer of the time, naturally Beethoven. Diabelli was proposing to compile an anthology of variations on his own waltz, one from each composer. Beethoven responded in a characteristic manner: first there was nothing, and then there was nothing … and then, in 1823, there was an entire, and monumental, set of no less than thirty-three variations.