"Janárceková's intellectually unpretentious expressionist music never runs the risk of becoming cliche-infected: her will to express herself and her awareness of fragmentariness combine in a subtle sensuality of sound. At every moment the music seems to be 'appropriate': far removed from triviality, and away from fashionable contemplative platitudes." (Dirk Wieschollek) The Slovak Quasars ensemble's conductor Ivan Buffa also doubles as the piano soloist with the Bamberg Symphony in the piano concerto of Viera Janárceková, who surely must be counted as one of the most distinguished female voices in today's European composition landscape.

“ICONS 2” is the follow-up collection to my 2017 “ICONS” recording (OR0030). Like the first collection, the pieces included here are corner stones of the flute repertoire and are works that accompany me through my performance and teaching career. For this album, I have focused on six composers from various moments in the 20th and 21st centuries whose diverse musical language, artistic vision and fearlessness helped and help shape today’s musical landscape. These six composers are led in by one of the most important names in Western Classical music history: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.