An impressive continuation of the documentation of Gregor Joseph Werner's oeuvre, showing Haydn's predecessor at the Esterhazy court as a pioneer in musical development.Gregor Joseph Werner was by no means a mere minor master preceding Haydn - this was already impressively shown by the previous recordings in this series. Now the newly acquired picture of him is put into even sharper focus: Werner's symphonies and instrumental concertos composed for the princely table have been lost, but the composer comes to the fore as a grand master of Latin sacred music. With his strength of character and contrapuntal perfection, he proves to be not only a prerequisite and teacher for Joseph Haydn, th efather of Viennese classicism, but himself a gateway to this stylistic epoch. Werner appears to us today as the spiritual support of the rather mundane Viennese classicism.

A l'été 1968, quelques jours après la répression brutale du "Printemps de Prague", le Tchèque en exil Rafael Kubelík a dirigé un concert captivant dans sa ville d'adoption, Lucerne : une Symphonie de Haydn pleine de vitalité et une Quatrième de Tchaïkovski passionnée encadrent le Concerto pour piano de Schönberg - c'est aussi la seule apparition de la légende britannique du piano John Ogdon au Festival de Lucerne.

On its debut recording, the ARUNDOSquintett demonstrates its joy of playing, virtuosity and chamber music strength - with wind quintets by four composers who, like the ensemble, found "home" in North Rhine-Westphalia in very different ways. Influences and inspirations ranging from the folk music of the Balkans in Ligeti's early Six Bagatelles to African trance music in Guth's composition NGOMA to the esprit of French modernism in Trojahn's and Blomenkamp's music awaken the classical wind ensemble for the 21st century classical wind formation to new, inspired life for the 21st century as well.

The common question as to who was the most important Hungarian composer of the twentieth century – Béla Bartók or Zoltán Kodály – would have been vehemently rejected by the two like-minded friends. On the one hand, they shared many ideas and goals, such as researching Hungarian folk music, which they recorded in the countryside before and after the First World War using a wax cylinder phonograph. Bartók and Kodály made the original music of the peasant societies, which has nothing to do with the idea of Csárdás fire and Puszta romanticism, the basis of their own idioms, which they further developed in very personal ways. On the other hand, the careers of the two composers progressed in entirely different ways. While Bartók embraced international modernism and went into American exile at the height of fascist rule in Hungary, Kodály remained in his home country even under politically difficult circumstances, devoting himself unswervingly to his great task: integrating music into the school curriculum in order to make it the basis of national consciousness and social behaviour.

Continuing a much-acclaimed series of recordings: in the wake of Sardanapalo, Kirill Karabits and the Staatskapelle Weimar are devoting themselves for the first time to major works by Weimar's Kapellmeister-composer, Franz Liszt, with his Dante and Tasso. His Künstlerfestzug is a world-premiere recording.