Olga Scheps SCHUBERT

"Scheps showed the ability to create her own Schubert-Version. On one point you can sense her great sense of orchestrating it on point. On the other point you can sense her ability to give her own personal note to it. You can sense, the amount of effort she put in through every note she encounters." (NDR online) 

"Olga Scheps has the ability to show sense in all shades of darkness. Her poise in playing the piano, is presented through a total control of her mastery. She is on point as far as the interpretation goes. The message is sent. The “Kuperlwieser Walzer” is her key play, as far as giving you that Good-Night-Vibe. In her own personal way she is able to present As-Pur-Impromptu D 935. Every change of vibration is shown, where emotion of warmth and cold is felt at the same time. With her competence and intelligence and the mastery of her craft, we should be more than excited about her 4th Studio Album." (Rondo)

Olga Scheps RUSSIAN ALBUM

"In Olga Scheps Russian Album she excellently captures the emotion of melancholy, magically showcases sadness and being reserved. You can feel the emotion of slight world pain and the suffering of the soul, like at the beginning of Mili Balakirevs “Au Jardin” (…). Once the main subject of the play  Glinkas/Balakirevs “Lerche” comes into play your ears will widen: Sorrow, and the emotion of saying goodbye is felt throughout her mastery of playing the piano, without being old-fashioned. A Schepstrademark is her way of playing Rachmaninows g-Moll-Prelude: Effortless, also not showcasing her true capabilities she goes through this prelude. Overall a great Cover of the matter, being focused on presenting the play in its true fashion, which is not being boasting and a certain reservedness." (Fono Forum)

"Scheps shows masterfully how to present the emotions of sadness and pain in her Russian album. The tears will be following her play, that’s what is the result of her mastery. Her album is a well-put program that opens up many doors of emotion. (NDR online)

Jan Lisiecki / Christian Zacharias / Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks MOZART Piano Concertos Nos. 20 & 21

The Deutsche Grammophon label has offered a series of teenage prodigies, not all of whom have lived up to their billing. This release by Polish-born Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki, just 17 and looking not entirely unlike Justin Bieber, may make a bigger splash than most. You might guess from the sheer daring of the interpretations, especially that of the Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, that you were dealing with extreme youth here, but no insufficiency of technique or tone gives it away. The Piano Concerto No. 20 is really impressive. Lisiecki and conductor Christian Zacharias, leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, set out to create a real old-school recording of this most stormy of Mozart's concertos, and they succeed in forging something that's quite detailed and coherently worked out. It might also be called over the top, but that's something to be decided by the individual listener Lisiecki deploys a big sound, and he and Zacharias add on tempo variations, ornaments, and sudden dramatic gestures, topping the whole thing off with Beethoven's underutilized cadenza for the first movement. It's sort of as if one of the big Russian-schooled pianists of the middle part of the last century had decided to record the work with Leopold Stokowski as conductor, and Zacharias' contribution is key: he ruffles the orchestra's strings into spiky little attacks. In the Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, they are not quite as distinctive, but the breadth and control of Lisiecki's playing is nevertheless impressive, and in a world in which young students are disinclined to take chances he deserves all kinds of credit. (James Manheim)

Olga Scheps CHOPIN

"The debut album of the 24 year old russian pianist phenom Olga Scheps is one of the best and can be included in Chopins birthday. Just the different emotions, shadows and skills are displayed in her album. Amazing." (Stern)

"Olga Scheps play the g-moll-Ballad with a sense of a feminine side and on-point technical skills. A fine tuned 'Walzer', two sensible 'Nocturnes', two 'Mazurken' and a different 'Etüden'." (Die Welt)

"The FAZ named Olga Scheps the new star in Chopin-Heaven. Her current studio album just is a indicator to her success. She is a master of her craft and makes it look effortless, combined with passion and emotion." (Kölnische Rundscha)

Tanja Becker-Bender / Péter Nagy BÉLA BARTÓK The Works for Violin and Piano

“Anyone who met Bartók and was aware of the primordial rhythmic power of his music was sur- prised by the slender, fragile form of the man. He had the outward appearance of a delicate, sensi- tive scholar,” wrote the Swiss conductor Paul Sacher. Born in the small Hungarian town of Nagyszentmiklós (now Sânnicolau Mare in Romania), Béla Bartók was an exceptional phenomenon in many respects. It was around 1905 that he first heard Magyar peasant music, and it impressed him deeply. From then on, he began collecting old songs and dances from Hungary and Romania on his trips (later also from Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Arabic countries). He had the country peo- ple perform them and wrote them down himself. In the process, he discovered age-old folk music which had quite a different sound than the syn- thetic folklore propagated in the cities, which had been influenced by Franz Liszt (Hungarian Rhapso- dies) or Johannes Brahms (Hungarian Dances).

“Simple, frequently rough, but never stupid,” was the impression made by this peasant music on Bar- tók. He also found “no indication of chords stereotypically connected to the major-minor tonal system.” This folk art “which, despite its emphatic power, was entirely free of sentimentality and superuous ornamentation,” became a fundamental part of his expressionistic tonal language. One might say that Bartók drew only “from the clearest springs”, as the end of his Cantata profana (1930) so eloquently avows. Tanja Becker-Bender and Péter Nagy therefore undertook an intensive study of this sort of folklore and its instrumental techniques before making this recording.

Ernst, Daniel & Andreas Ottensamer THE CLARINOTTS

The Clarinotts are a one-of-a-kind clarinet trio formed of Ernst, Daniel and Andreas Ottensamer – the Principal Clarinettists of the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras.

Founded in 2005, the ensemble aims to find new and exciting ways in which to bring the varied voices of the clarinet family to the fore, performing on the E-flat, bass clarinet and basset horn alongside the more common B-flat and A clarinet.  With an emphasis on the Viennese tradition of clarinet playing, the individual excellence of each player – all esteemed international soloists in their own right – is expressed in collective performances of the very highest quality.

Comprising extant works, new arrangements and high-profile commissions, The Clarinotts’ repertoire is wide-ranging and diverse, covering core classical masterpieces as well as film music and jazz – all serving to display the dazzling range of colour and inbuilt unity of this critically acclaimed father-and-son trio.  The ensemble ranges accordingly, performing duos and trios with and without piano, as well as in combination with other artists and ensembles.

The Clarinotts regularly tour Europe and Asia, and appear as guests with many of the world’s most renowned orchestras and festivals.  Recent and upcoming highlights include tours of Japan, China and Taiwan, and the world première of a triple clarinet concerto by celebrated Austro-Hungarian composer Ivàn Eröd with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Andris Nelsons (January 2016).

The Clarinotts released their debut album on Octavia Records and Gramola Vienna in 2009 to much critical acclaim, and are set to release a recording on Mercury Classics/Deutsche Grammophon in early 2016.

The 1^st January 2016 will see the release of The Clarinotts new album on Deutsche Grammophon/Mercury Classics. The enormously talented family trio have based this album on music for the stage, including music by Rossini and Mozart, and it has been recorded with string members from the Vienna Philharmonic.  As well as this exciting news, The Clarinotts will also be the feature of the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Day intermission film. This will be live streamed world-wide to over 90 countries and will be watched by around 50 million people.

Trio Rodin ENRIQUE GRANADOS Chamber Music with Piano

ÆVEA label is proud to introduce Trio Rodin's first CD with a new version of the Granados' Piano Trio based on the manuscript found at the "Museu de la Musica de Barcelona" (instead of the commonly played edition, UME). Besides, the CD includes the world's first recording of Granados' Trova, an arrangement by the composer himself of his most famous chamber orchestra piece "Elisenda". 

The sonata for violin and piano in another of the surprises offered to the listeners here: "We knew about the existence of the manuscripts of a second, third and fourth movements; but no one has dusted them off and shown them to an audience till now. A complete second movement, and two other unfinished, are presented here as a première of what it is, without any doubt, one of his greatest chamber music works." (Trio Rodin) 

The sound is 100% natural, mastered with no additional effects. This is an OnClassical production. Passionate, charming and ambitious... without any doubt one of the most promising young piano trios. (Edesche Concertzaal)