The Romantic Piano Concerto series reaches 62 and makes an interesting (although temporary) departure: these four works are for pedal piano (a piano which includes a separate keyboard for the feet, to be played rather in the manner of an organ). Gounod was inspired by the talent of the young and apparently very attractive Lucie Palicot (born circa 1860) whom he heard performing Alkan’s music for pedal piano in 1882. Gounod is far better known for his operatic and liturgical compositions: these works show a different side to this nineteenth-century luminary.

Johann Caspar [Kaspar] Ferdinand Fischer was a German (Bohemian) Baroque composer and Kapellmeister. Johann Nikolaus Forkel ranked Fischer as one of the best composers for keyboard of his day, however, partly due to the rarity of surviving copies of his music, his music is rarely heard today. There can be no doubt that J.C.F. Fischer belongs to the ranks of the important and influential keyboard composers of the 17th/early 18th centuries.

Marin Marais published his Quatrième Livre de Pièces de Viole two years after the death of Louis XIV, establishing himself as the undisputed master of the genre and providing pieces not only for musicians who had achieved some skill on the viol but also for the most virtuoso players. Here Marais reshaped the classical forms, altering the traditional sequence for the suites and making an increasing use of character pieces. The sometimes whimsical imagery and the new freedom of form that these pieces contain reach their peak in the astonishing Suitte d'un goût étranger; these thirty or so pieces employ as yet unheard-of keys and offer a multitude of characters and representations that can tend towards the exotic. Breaking further new ground, and somewhat influenced by the Italian trio, Marais ended the Quatrième Livre with two suites for three viols, a genre he claimed to be new to France.

And all pieces in this album are exclusive original compositions. We composed them during the last few years, and each of us has tried to find his very own voice. And yet every piece on this album is the result of our collegiality, our mutual support, reflecting our constant exchange on our individual tastes and preferences, as well as our critiques and the sense of humour of each Rastrelli member.

This new CD from the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Chuhei Iwasaki, explores the links found between the music of Czech composer Leos Janacek, and Japanese composer Akira Ifukube.

Nicolas Lebègue, the principal organist of King Louis XIV from 1678 until his death in 1702, represents the first state of perfection for the French organ. Alternating great virtuoso pieces worthy of the pomp of Versailles, inspired Noëls and poetic elevations, these Vêpres de Noël (Christmas Vespers) showcase the traditional alternation of vocal pieces, as practised by nuns in Paris, Port-Royal or the Filles-Dieu who attended to prisoners sentenced to death: Lebègue’s motets for single voice, and the plain-chant composed by Nivers for use in Paris. All the atmosphere of this “French-style” nativity is recreated with generosity and beauty under the direction of Nicolas Bucher, on the keys of the Great Organ of the Chapelle Royale.

Michael Wessel is a professor for piano playing, song accompaniment and methodology at the University of Protestant Church Music in Bayreuth. He studied piano, composition, music theory and school music in four major courses at the music academies in Detmold and Stuttgart: piano with Hanns-Ulrich Kunze, Jürgen Uhde and Elisabeth Leonskaja, composition with Helmut Lachenmann, music theory and music theory with Martin C. Redel, music pedagogy with Karl Heinrich Ehrenforth. During his studies at Lachenmann, he received a graduate scholarship from the state of Baden-Württemberg. The present release is the fourth volume in his project of recording Mozart's complete piano sonatas.

Nannette Streicher (1769-1833) was regarded throughout her life as a prominent piano maker, who was regarded in Vienna as the «third great Master» after Johann Schantz and Anton Walter already at the age of 27. Not averse to innovation, Nannette Streicher produced instruments at the highest technical level, while good relations with musicians such as Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven or Ignaz Schuppanzigh, but also with amateurs such as Karoline Fürstin von Lobkowitz or Georg Graf von Apponyi were helping to sell the grand pianos, with numbers produced rising up to 85 instruments per year. One of these instruments from 1813 was donated to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna by the Bösendorfer company, where it was restored from 2013 on and even made playable again. Ines Schüttengruber presents this fortepiano on this album with music from the time of its creation by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Franz Schubert, Ignaz Moscheles, Jan Václav Hugo Vorísek and Anna Maria (Nannette) Streicher.