Florian Horwath

The first true complete recording of Robert Schumann’s works for piano solo on 17 albums (in 15 volumes), played by Florian Uhlig, seeks for the first time to offer imaginative compilations on album (e.g. “Robert Schumann and the Sonata”, “The Young Piano Virtuoso”, “Schumann in Vienna”, “Schumann and Counterpoint”, “Variations”) containing all original works for pianoforte written between 1830 (Abegg Variations op. 1) and 1854 (Ghost Variations) according to the newest critical editions and/or first editions. Several of these albums include premiere recordings. The booklets by Joachim Draheim, who discovered and/or edited a number of the works, shed light on the biographical and musicological background to the works thus coupled.

Music is an amplifier for emotions, no matter whether joy, grief, happiness or enthusiasm. Music has a kind of magical power, which can lift all these feelings to an “divine” level. For a moment it feels as if we were more than ‘just’ human. This special power of music hides in every single moment and every little episode of our lives. By definition an episode is an event within a larger event, and that is exactly what this album is about. These small, perhaps irrelevant episodes are what ultimately shape us the most. It‘s time to leave life behind, to sink in thoughts to feel alive.

A fantastic 5 th Album of the sensational french jazz band. Recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studio (New Jersey, USA) , mixed by Jordan Kouby at Question de son (Paris) and mastered by Frank Merritt at The Carvery (London , UK). Hard Bop 2021 at his best!

Director of music to the Darmstadt court, Graupner's output almost equalled that of Telemann and certainly surpassed that of J.S. Bach: he composed a number of operas, many concertos and orchestral suites, chamber music, keyboard works and more than 1400 church cantatas. Almost the entire body of Graupner’s work has survived in autograph but hardly any of his compositions were published during his lifetime or afterwards. Fortunately they were not burnt after his death as he himself wished, but were the subject of a legal dispute between the landgrave and Graupner’s heirs. Thanks to this the complete archive was taken to a place outside the city and thus spared a second burning, as very little of the old city of Darmstadt would be spared during the Second World War.

Florian Krumpöck, the Austrian pianist, conductor and festival director, has chosen Frédéric Chopin's famous Piano Ballads Nos. 1-4 as well as his 2nd Piano Sonata for his first recording. And as a result, Krumpöck creates a very unique sound world that shows how strongly Chopin's melodies are influenced by Italian opera, and especially by bel canto. Nevertheless, the accompanying voices are never neglected: they comment on, counteract, and support the "vocal lines." Two different pianos were deliberately used: a full, overtone-rich Bösendorfer Imperial for the Prélude and the Ballades, a clearer, more "modern" Bösendorfer 280 for the 2nd Piano Sonata.