Niklas Liepe

For his new album, violinist Niklas Liepe has joined forces with Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman to create a powerful musical appeal for the preservation of creation. Each movement of the newly composed suite for violin and orchestra "Tipping Points" is introduced by specially written poems by the poet Nick Drake. The second world premiere recording on the album with the WDR Funkhausorchester is "The New Four Seasons", a cinematic-sounding new version of Vivaldi's famous "Four Seasons" by Wolf Kerschek.

"An experiment … that violinist Niklas Liepe dares to conduct here: to bathe the devil violin cycle of the Paganini Caprices in a new light: 22 contemporary composers have taken part in this experiment. Liepe plays… confidently, without tears… A worthwhile experiment," wrote the press about Niklas Liepe's "Paganini Project", which was published by Sony Classical in 2018. The young German violinist had recorded Paganini's famous caprices in new versions for violin and orchestra in collaboration with the renowned arranger Andreas N. Tarkmann. For his new album "#GoldbergReflections" Liepe has again recorded, in collaboration with Andreas N. Tarkmann, 13 variations from the famous "Goldberg-Variations" by Johann Sebastian Bach in a version for violin and strings. The violinist is accompanied by the NDR Radiophilharmonie under the direction of Jamie Phillips. Liepe has also invited eleven internationally renowned composers such as Moritz Eggert, Sidney Corbett, Wolf Kerschek, Rolf Rudin and Daniel Sundy to compose new variations based on the Bach original. Tarkmann has transposed the variations into a baroque concerto grosso sound. These variations thus create a connection to the original and at the same time frame the new compositions, which bring the "Goldberg Variations", written 280 years ago, into the present

Niccolo Paganinis 24 Capricen für Violine solo gehören zu den spektakulärsten, berühmtesten und technisch anspruchsvollsten Werken der Klassik. Paganini schrieb die Capricen, wie man diese kurzen, launisch (kapriziert) und wie improvisiert klingenden Instrumentalstücke nannte, zwischen 1802 und 1817 im Alter von 38 Jahren.

For his album "About Time", pianist and composer Florian Christl has written pieces for piano and string orchestra for the first time. Thematically, he negotiates in his melodic, cinematic-atmospheric compositions the perception of time and the beauty that lies in the awareness of the transience of things "With this album I go in search of the moment, in search of the here and now. Focusing on what is now, it is about the awareness of the inevitable fleetingness and transience of life and the ability to recognize a fragile beauty in this fleetingness," Florian Christl explains Great emotional moments orchestrated with wide-screen string sounds and intimate quiet moments portrayed in piano miniatures combine on "About Time" to create a poetic musical experience. For the recording of "About Time", Munich-based pianist and composer Florian Christl collaborated with the NDR Radiophilharmonie and conductor Ben Palmer. Special guest on the album is violinist Niklas Liepe.