im Moto

Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 1873 – 11 May 1916), commonly known as Max Reger, was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, as a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, and as a music director at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen. Reger first composed mainly Lieder, chamber music, choral music and works for piano and organ. He later turned to orchestral compositions, such as the popular Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart, and to works for choir and orchestra such as Gesang der Verklärten (1903), Der 100. Psalm (1909), Der Einsiedler and the Hebbel Requiem (both 1915).

Sviatoslav Richter is still regarded by nearly the entire piano community as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Known for the “depth of his interpretations, his virtuoso technique, and his vast repertoire,” many of his recordings are still the benchmark recordings of famous repertoire. The present edition of Richter’s interpretations from 1948 to 1963 even has some premieres to offer, taken from hitherto unreleased live recordings. Special guests on this release include the Borodin Quartet, Nina Dorliac, Mstislav Rostropovich. Profil Edition Günter Hänssler has already released numerous albums featuring Richter’s performances of works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. The recordings that make up this edition are devoted to the composers Schumann, Brahms and Reger.

Gunnar de Frumerie grew up in a musical family. His mother was a skilled pianist who gave him his first piano lessons, and his father was an architect with a great and lively interest in music. Gunnar’s siblings and later several other family members also became good musicians. He himself appeared early as a pianist and started composing early on. At the age of nineteen, he won all three prizes in a com- position competition organized by the Hirsch piano store in 1927. He had submitted four piano pieces but only written the manuscript to one of the pieces himself; the others were written by his mother, father, and sister, so that the hand-writing would not reveal the author. The jury found all the pieces equally good. The surprise was therefore great when it was discovered that they had the same author. Unofficially, it was said that if there had been a fourth prize, he would have received it as well. It is music written by a young man who was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. He made his public debut as a pianist in January 1929, playing, among other things, his own works in the main hall of the Music Academy.

Im Februar und Mдrz 1824 war Schubert in einer Art Schaffensrausch «unmenschlich fleissig» (Schwind). Neben dem am 1. Mдrz beendeten Oktett kьndigt er drei Streichquartette an. Nur das a-moll-Quartett erlebt am 24. Mдrz seine Urauffьhrung und erscheint im Druck. Doch auch das d-moll-Werk muss damals entstanden sein, wird aber erst 1826 geprobt (Schubert nimmt dabei noch Korrekturen vor) und am 1. Februar erstmals aufgefьhrt. Hat Schubert das dьstere Werk – alle vier Sдtze stehen in Moll – wegen seiner Kьhnheit zurьckbehalten? Denn was er im Harmonischen und mehr noch im Ausdruck erreicht, ist selbst im Vergleich mit Beethovens Spдtwerk neuartig.