The Braunfels—a concerto in all but name—and Pfitzner make an apt pairing, two works dating from the twilight of German Romanticism. Both are heroically dispatched by Markus Becker, with Constantin Trinks and his Berlin Radio Symphony forces providing idiomatic support.

The gestation of this project lasted two years. Anna Prohaska and Julius Drake finally concentrated their research on the themes of Eve, Paradise and banishment. Some songs were obvious choices, such as Fauré's Paradis, in which God appears to Eve and asks her to name each flower and animal, or Purcell's Sleep, Adam, sleep with it's references to Genesis. But Anna Prohaska also wished to illustrate the cliché of the woman who brought original sin into the world and her status as a tempter who leads man astray, as in Brahms's Salamander, Wolf's Die Bekehrte or Ravel's Air du Feu.

Hyperion's Romantic Cello Concerto series continues to bring new works to light, expanding a repertoire that has long focused on a select group of composers. Here, Alban Gerhardt performs the three concertos by Hans Pfitzner. Pfitzner's early Cello Concerto in a minor was scorned by his teachers (although liked by the composer himself). His Cello Concerto Op.42 is a beautifully constructed work that derives it's material from a lyrical cello solo heard at the very start of the work. The Cello Concerto Op.52 is dedicated to Ludwig Hoelscher, a pupil of two giants of German cello-playing: Hugo Becker and Julius Klengel. As a bonus, the recording also includes Pfitzner's Duo for violin, cello and small orchestra.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler already enjoyed a worldwide legendary standing during his lifetime - he was considered the German conductor and performances were greeted with rapturous applause. Today, more than 50 years after his death, Wilhelm Furtwangler is still an icon and his work has become an integral part ofthe music scene.