Chamber Music & Recitals

When Kamilla Schatz plays the violin, she becomes one with her instrument; she revels and sings"- with these words the Berliner Togesspiegel hailed the debut of Swiss violinist Kamilla Schatz at Berlin's Philharmonie Concert Hall. Since then, she has...

When in March 2018 the first bars of Schubert's "Unfinished" reached the recording equipment, this was not the everyday life of musicians who fulfilled their daily tasks, but the birth of a new body of sound: the KlangKollektiv Wien. Under the baton of...

When he died, Nicolaus Bruhns was just 31 years old, and only twelve of his vocal works and five organ compositions have survived. On the strength of these, he is nevertheless considered one of the most prominent North German composers of the generation...

When Franz Schubert in 1827 invited a friend to the first performance of his Winterreise, he called it 'a cycle of horrifying songs'. The texts that he had chosen to set were by the poet Wilhelm M?ller, whose 24 poems form a psychodrama which starts with...

When deciding on the repertoire for his d?but disc, James Newby's first choice fell on An die ferne Geliebte, songs that he had been performing ever since the beginning of his career. But Beethoven's song cycle - and perhaps even more so the...

When Andreas Haefliger conceived this unusual combination of concertos it was with the aim of putting into perspective three pieces, each a unique and highly expres-sive highlight from the composers' output. That Maurice Ravel's Concerto for the Left...

When American composers began writing symphonies around the mid-1800s, their works were very much in the European tradition. During the first half of the 20th century, the great innovator Charles Ives injected a recognizably American sound into the...

What we know as 'Handel's Opus 3' is most likely little more than a brazen attempt by the London publisher John Walsh to make some quick money. In 1715, Walsh had issued a pirated edition of Corelli's 12 Concerti Grossi Opus 6 which proved an instant...

What ensemble could be more predestined for Ludwig van Beethoven's piano trios than the Vienna Piano Trio? Following it's brilliant beginning with the Trios op. 70, this top ensemble from Vienna now presents the magnificent and mighty "Archduke Trio" op...

What better music than Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni to start the celebration of Rachel Podger's 50th birthday year? Together with the star players of Brecon Baroque, Podger guides listeners through the cycle of nature and life. Vivaldi's Four Seasons...

Well into the previous century Sweden was largely a peasant society with folk music an integral part of daily life. There were work songs, narrative ballads and, obviously, music for dancing. Over the centuries a not always easy coexistence between...

We at Challenge are proud to present a new account of Goldberg Variations by critically acclaimed young pianist Hannes Minnaar. His rendition of Goldbergs sums up all the features of a 'contemporary' interpretation at the highest degree: Transparent,...