Mendelssohn Handschuh

It has long been my wish to record both of Johannes Brahms’s piano concertos for CD. In doing so, I have been able to build upon many experiences that allow me at this point in time to open myself up even more to the essence of these works, which move me to the depths of my being. Both works offer me something incredibly great, something that in my conception of things can hardly be further enlarged. Each of the two concertos fascinates me with its vast wealth of sound, its intensity, above all with its simply infinite emotional range.

Ten years after the release of the first CD featuring violin concertos by Rodolphe Kreutzer, CPO now releases his Concertos Nos. 1, 6, and 7, again in interpretations by Laurent Albrecht Breuninger. Even today Kreutzer continues to be ranked with the great violin virtuosos of his time and along with Viotti, Rode, and Baillot is regarded as a central figure of the French violin school. As FonoForum wrote of Vol. 1 in 2011, Breuninger 'does outstanding justice to the virtuosic demands. He adds brilliant polish to his solos, absolutely in a manner reminiscent of Paganini'. Kreutzer wrote his nineteen violin concertos during his active years as a virtuoso.

Tatjana Ruhland has been described as "the Paganini of the flute", and in December 2018 the Tagesspiegel, commenting on her interpretation of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune with the Berliner Philharmoniker, termed her "a fabulous faun" and declared: "Already the first measures justify the jubilation at the end". Now she once again is heard as an interpreter on CPO, this time with more flute concertos by August Eberhard Müller. The critics showered her with praise for Vol. 1, for her rendering of the concertos with "inexhaustible musicality" (klassik-heute.com).