Die neue Kuschelklassik vereint einige der berühmtesten klassischen Musiker wie Lang Lang, Sol Gabetta, Martin Stadtfeld, Jonas Kaufmann mit neuen Stars der Klassik wie Il Divo, die Piano Guys und vielen anderen. Sie alle spielen gefühlvolle Klassik von großen Komponisten wie Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Händel, Erik Satie zum Kuscheln und Träumen.

Patrick Gallois belongs to the generation of French musicians leading highly successful international careers as both soloist and conductor. From the age of 17 he studied the flute with Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatoire and at the age of 21 was appointed principal flute in the Orchestre national de France under Lorin Maazel, playing under many famous conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum, and Sergiu Celibidache. He held this post until 1984, when he decided to focus on his solo career, which has subsequently taken him throughout the world.

Nach dem nun schon viele Jahre ungebrochen andauernden Erfolg der Kuschelrock-Reihe, mausert sich auch das Pendant aus der Klassik zielsicher zu einem Hit. Was nicht verwundert, denn auch Klassikfans wollen romantisch sein. Während bei Kuschelrock in letzter Zeit der Trend allerdings zu mehr Charts-Titeln und daher zu einem eher geringeren Kuschelfaktor ging, blieb Kuschelklassik dem Kuscheln treu. Auch auf Volume 7 wird wieder eine Klassikauswahl präsentiert, die romantische, zärtliche Stunden für Genießer mit gehobeneren Ansprüchen garantiert.

The figure of Ferdinand Ries (1784–1838) enjoys a peripheral familiarity among music-lovers as the friend and amanuensis of Beethoven. A bond had formed when Ries’s father Franz taught Beethoven in Bonn. While Beethoven doubtless cast his eye over his friend and student’s pieces from time to time, he sent Ries to his own teacher Johann Albrechtsberger for lessons in composition.

The self-interested cabal that has controlled the legacy of the Second Viennese School has barely conceded that this music exists, but the fact is that, faced with mounting bills at his Society for Musical Private Performances during the ruinous inflation of the early '20s, Arnold Schoenberg organized a concert of arrangements of music by Johann Strauss (the younger) and opened it to the public in order to raise money, defensively pointing out that Brahms, too, liked Strauss waltzes. His proteges, Berg and Webern, were drafted to arrange one waltz each, with Berg snaring the familiar Wein, Weib, und Gesang, Op. 418 (Wine, Women, and Song), and Schoenberg contributed a pair.

Saverio Mercadante was one of Italy’s ground-breaking composers in the development of opera, admired by contemporaries such as Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi. But during the years 1814 to 1820, inspired by fellow conservatoire students and their virtuoso teachers, he embarked on a series of works for the flute. They include seven concertos, happy exceptions to the rule in opera-obsessed Italy of the day. The solo writing is vividly characterised, full of technical demands perfectly adapted to the instrument’s then more limited capabilities and permeated with a rich bel canto lyricism.

Antonín Dvořák’s music, imbued with the spirit of Bohemia, reflects a love of his native land. His String Sextet, written in the distinctive style which brought him international fame, was an immediate success at its premiere. Composed just eight years earlier, his String Quartet No. 4, unpublished until 1968, features pioneering, wild outer movements, highly unusual for the time, which foreshadowed the modernist innovations of composers decades later. A moving Andante religioso, which Dvořák made use of in future works, lies at its heart. The Polonaise exploits both the soulful and virtuoso character of the cello. Volumes 1–8 are also available.

Symphony in F minor represents national romantic phase in Finnish music. The composer accomplished this symphony in the age of 20 and was deceased by tuberculosis at the age of 22. Mielck studies composing in Berlin 1895-94 where he was influenced by Max Bruch. This work is dark in its colours, even pathetic utilizing heavy brass sections and large strings. The Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra Op. 8 represents more calm and lighter side of the composer. John Storgårds does an exellent job in interpreting this late 19th century symphohy not underevaluating the performance of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo.

Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894) was a Belgian composer who died tragically young. He dedicated himself to composition from an early age, and was largely self-taught before César Franck took him under his wing. Unfortunately Franck died only a year later, after which Lekeu came under the tutelage of D'Indy, was befriended by Chausson, and received important commissions from the great Belgian violinisy Ysayë. The sublime Adagio for Strings on this disc, which Lekeu uncharacteristically never menions in his voluminous correspondence, was doubtless written in Franck's memory. The disc also contains Lekeu's major orchestral work, the Fantasy on two Angevin folk songs, and the touching symphonic study Ophélie, here given in its shorter (and to my mind better) version.

One of the very greatest collections of Dvorák recordings in the catalog, this set contains the four late tone poems based on folk legends, all of the major overtures (including the In Nature's Realm, Carnival, and Othello trilogy), and the magnificent Symphonic Variations. That's over two and a half hours of the some of the most colorful, appealing music in the history of the universe, all magnificently performed and recorded. If you don't own this set, you haven't lived.

Coming from two cultures, French and Haitian, the pianist Célimène Daudet is a soloist whose acting and artistic commitment are recognized by audiences and the international press. She performs on different continents and has been invited to play at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Philharmonie de Paris.

Violinist Maxim Vengerov is joined by Virtuosi, an ensemble of 11 violins lead by Mikhail Parhomovksy. 'This is above all a fun record - even more than most collections of violin lollipops a disc for those with a very sweet tooth… Here is a young violinist at the peak of his form enjoying himself from first to last in music undemanding on the ear if not the technique, outrageously showing off in a way that for most will be very endearing. Not that the playing is extrovert all the time… 'Meditationi' from Massenet's Thais conveys a rare depth of feeling, making it more than just a lyrical interlude.

Throughout these sessions, Michel Corboz defended a clear, fluid vision of Mendelssohn's choral music. Without exaggerating, he underscored the references to J. S. Bach or Handel, of whom the composer was so fond – the beginning of Psalm 115, with its colours, distinctly evokes the Cantor's Passions. As for the chorus ‘Kommt herzu’ from Psalm 95, it attests to the thoroughly religious fervour and solemn grandeur that incontestably innervate the Swiss conductor's interpretations.

“What seems to me to be Mendelssohn’s principal quality is his crystalline clarity. (…) It makes him one of the great composers of religious music. In the direct line of the great predecessors he admired so much, it made it possible for him to efface himself before the divine word and to set it to music with all necessary humility. This is what constitutes the force of the music on this recording.” – Philippe Herreweghe

Kotaro Fukuma began piano lessons at the age of five and received numerous awards at prestigious international competitions. At the age of twenty he won the First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. His debut production on ARS PRODUKTION is dedicated to this composer.