Schubert & Burgmüller: Works For Arpeggione David Bergmüller, Paul Gulda, Lorenz Duftschmid

Franz Schubert's so-called Arpeggione Sonata owes its peculiar name to a long-forgotten string instrument that was usually referred to in Vienna in the 1820s as the "bowed guitar" or "guitar-violoncello".

Master craftsman violinist Oleg Kurisa - a collection of works of Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann. They play romantic masterpieces with violin and viola gracefully. Co-starring Barry Snyder is also a well-known international pianist. The ensemble that is born between them has a rich yet singing spirit that makes you feel a good old tradition. It is a performance by a master who spins romantic music without revealing techniques.

Maria Kubizek joined the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1992.

Music that makes the ears grow' -this is how lutenist David Bergmuller characterises the music he has chosen for his solo recital. The charm of this album lies in its complexity, in the quiet, near-silent tones, in its meditative character. This is precisely why this repertoire still fascinates us today, because it forms a calming counterpoint to our overstimulated world. French lute music combined with David Bergmuller's own arrangements.

Julia Fischer and Martin Helmchen adopt a rather quick tempo and a light touch, hardly too heavily pedaled in the piano part, in the opening of the first movement of Schubert's First Sonata in D Major, a work that could lend itself, slight as it may be, to overblown Romantic rhetoric (although not in leaner and more spirited readings like that of Joseph Szigeti, who recorded the Sonata with Andor F”ldes in 1942, a performance re-released in Sony's "Masterworks Portrait" series 52538 in 1992).

Distilled sparingly over the course of Franz Schubert’s all too brief life, the few works that make up his output for violin and piano fascinate and intrigue, writing the episodes of a story that is undoubtedly fragmentary, yet in reality deeply unified in a mysterious yearning for elsewhere. Situated somewhere between the miniature of the lied and the large symphonic forms, these pieces open countless windows onto Schubert’s contrasted and tormented universe. Nathalia and Maria Milstein’s choice of a splendid Blüthner piano of 1857 plays a crucial role in the quest for unheard-of sound worlds on which this disc invites us.

Distilled sparingly over the course of Franz Schubert’s all too brief life, the few works that make up his output for violin and piano fascinate and intrigue, writing the episodes of a story that is undoubtedly fragmentary, yet in reality deeply unified in a mysterious yearning for elsewhere. Situated somewhere between the miniature of the lied and the large symphonic forms, these pieces open countless windows onto Schubert’s contrasted and tormented universe. Nathalia and Maria Milstein’s choice of a splendid Blüthner piano of 1857 plays a crucial role in the quest for unheard-of sound worlds on which this disc invites us.

It is a sign of great artistry when performers can take a composer's lesser works and make them compelling. That Fischer and Helmchen have done so with Schubert's modest violin and piano works to such joyous effect is remarkable. The revelation comes when Fischer joins Helmchen at the piano in the sublime Fantasia.

Franz Schubert (1797-1827) was an extremely prolific composer, but his entire output for violin and piano represents more than two hours of music. His bold use of tonalities is already evident in the early works from 1816 and 1817, which clearly reflect his admiration for Mozart. The first three are labelled "Sonatina", possibly intended to appeal to amateur musicians. However, they are highly complex works by the youthful composer. The late works, written in 1826 and 1827 shortly before his death, are characterised by an exuberant virtuosity, and sometimes the piano is treated like a substitute orchestra.Piet Kuijken and Naaman Sluchin have devoted more than ten years to the intensive study of the interpretation of these works and the question of appropriate period instruments, with the aim of doing optimal justice to the spirit of Schubert’s music in its profoundly human depth: "In these pieces, Schubert showcases every possible technical trick; invention is constantly applied to formal structure, the greatest simplicity is found alongside outrageous virtuosity, and an infinite variety of timbre can be found".

Schubert: Complete Works for Violin and Piano by Michèle Auclair and Geneviève Joy is a captivating exploration of Schubert’s lyrical and delicate compositions for violin and piano.