Franz Schubert and Carl Czerny – two contemporaries, living in the same city, both tightly connected to Beethoven in their own way. The former ascended into glory, being regarded nowadays as one of the leading composer figures of the entire music history; the latter, albeit a highly prolific composer and very cherished pupil of Beethoven, remained in the popular recollection mostly as a teacher and creator of numerous study works of little musical value. His Grande Sonate in D minor, by far the longest out of his eleven sonatas, was written immediately after Beethoven’s death and can be regarded as an attempt to reach the realms of the latter’s Hammerklavier Sonata: with its seven movements and spectacular technical challenges, the work is a long-forgotten masterpiece which deserves its place among the great oeuvres of the 19^th century. In this recording, Aurelia Vişovan presents it to the public for the very first time on a fortepiano, alongside Schubert’s dramatic Sonata in C minor, D. 958, composed in the same year.

Booklet: EN, FR, DE

Radical, daring and extremely refined: that’s how C. P. E. Bach saw his new path for the Oratorio, after his father’s Passions had marked the climax of the baroque era. Encouraged by his godfather Telemann and liberated from the yoke of the capricious Frederick of Prussia, he found himself in Hamburg with an audience hungry for new music. And he brought them his oratorios, no longer in churches but in concert halls, where he demanded the listener’s undivided attention for sudden changes of mood and colour.

Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu did indeed leave its traces: both Haydn and Beethoven showed great interest after a series of three performances conducted by Mozart in Vienna. Not only did it pave the way for Haydn’s oratorios, but there are also clear influences on the Pamina arias in Die Zauberflöte written a few years later. C. P. E. Bach wrote to his publisher Breitkopf, “I think this is the best work I have ever written.”

Booklet : EN, FR, DE

Lyrics: DE, EN

With this recording, Federica Bianchi explores the development of music for keyboard instruments from the beginning of the 15^th century to the dawn of the Baroque period. The earliest works originate from the famous Codex Faenza (c. 1400-1420), a manuscript of secular songs arranged for keyboard instrument by composers such as Jacopo da Bologna and Guillaume de Machaut. The earliest printed collection (1517), devoted exclusively to music for keyboard instruments, marks another milestone in this development. Later works on this album include arrangements of Renaissance hits such as Ancor che col partire. Federica Bianchi’s exploration of this repertoire takes her to the toccatas of the late 16t^h and early 17^th centuries.

Federica Bianchi plays this repertoire on three instruments built after historical models: a clavicymbalum after a design from the first half of the 15^th century and two harpsichords after Italian models from the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

Booklet: EN, FR, DE, IT

In 1959, two composers wrote nonets: Nino Rota’s melodic Nonetto, on which he would continue to work for almost 20 years, and Bohuslav Martinů’s farewell chamber music piece, a nonet, which he composed as a last piece to satisfy his longing for his homeland.

Eisler did not compose his nonet in his native country either, but arrived in Mexico in 1941 as a refugee from the Nazis. There he wrote the music for John Steinbeck’s documentary film The Forgotten Village, which served as the inspiration for his Nonet No. 2.

With this CD, the ensemble Oxalys presents us with the opportunity to rediscover these three nonets – three masterpieces by key protagonists of 20th century music history.

Booklet: EN, FR, DE, NL

The Partitas are the first work for harpsichord published by Johann Sebastian Bach. Between 1726 and 1730, the partitas were published separately, one per year, before being brought together in a single collection in 1731.

Shortly after his appointment of Cantor of the Leipzig Thomaskirche, Bach decided to devote his Opus I to a fashionable genre: the harpsichord suite, a series of dances of contrasting character, united by the same key and preceded by a prelude.

The Partitas are, to all intents and purposes, Bach’s last word on this musical form, the most mature, a sort of collection: each type of dance is explored, with a compositional virtuosity that requires from the performer, in addition to an undisputed technical ability, a depth of reading capable of grasping the mathematical relationships that trace the general architecture.

Lorenzo Ghielmi, one of the most famous interpreters of Bach’s works, presents us with a recording in which elegance and measure allow the beauty and formal rigour of these pages to coexist.

Booklet: EN, FR, IT, DE

Booklet: EN, FR, IT, DE

25 years after his recording with il Giardino Armonico Enrico Onofri proposes us a new version in which he shows an unequalled maturity and artistic wisdom. Instead of making Vivaldi the main hero of the recording he wants to pay tribute Mother Nature, her saving power and the art inspired by it-through its sounds, images, smells, tastes and sensations. The music that accompanies “the Seasons” in this album falls within the scope of the Italian instrumental seventeenth century and offers us a collection of musical gems that lead the way to Vivaldi’s masterwork.

Booklet: FR, EN, DE, IT

Lyrics: FR, EN, DE

Jean Cras was born in France, in the Breton city of Brest, in 1879 and died there in 1932; he was successful in reconciling his twin passions for the sea and for music throughout his life.
Cras liked to associate free melody with strictness of form and was also greatly influenced by his native land as well as by the exotic destinations that he discovered during his voyages.
Jean Cras made a significant contribution to the French chamber music repertoire. The quality of his mature works is not only exceptionally high, but they also possess naturalness of manner, charm, and lyricism. His compositions were greatly appreciated by audiences and were generally first performed in Paris shortly after their completion.
The Belgian Ensemble Oxalys with Belgian soprano Sophie Karthäuser as a guest present here three superb quintets that were composed during the 1920s.

Booklet: FR, EN, DE, NL

Booklet: EN, FR, DE

Lyrics: EN, FR